Turkish authorities have opened an extensive investigation into the disappearance of 25 kilos of gold and 50 kilos of silver from the custody vault of a courthouse in Büyükçekmece, west of Istanbul. The official who is the subject of all suspicions, identified as Erdal T., stopped going to work and, according to initial indications, took advantage of his access to the custody area to take the precious metals and then fled to the UK with his wife and children.
As reported by numerous Turkish media, the case came to light on Wednesday, when officials of the Büyükçekmece Public Prosecutor’s Office noticed the prolonged absence of Erdal T., head of the custody area, from his post. Suspicious, the prosecutors immediately ordered the safes to be opened with the keys held by another civil servant, Kemal D., and found them to be completely empty.
Initial enquiries into what happened have revealed that Erdal T. left the country on 19 November with his wife, Esma T., and their children on a flight from Sabiha Gökçen airport for the United Kingdom. The Turkish authorities have issued an international arrest warrant for the couple, while the other official who had custody of the keys to the safes, Kemal D., was taken into custody and questioned as a possible accomplice.
The fugitive took the gold and silver out of the building in broad daylight
According to the latest details released in the Turkish press about the investigation, Erdal T. extracted the gold and silver in a single action using a metal cart, leaving the building fully loaded. The records show that the safes were opened with a key, which reinforces the hypothesis of an internal robbery in which Erdal T. himself, perhaps with the help of one or more officials, was involved. Inspectors from the Prosecutor’s office supervise the evidence custody office every two months, and during the last inspection on 2 October, the gold and silver pieces were still in place, so the theft took place afterwards.
A message sent by the fugitive to friends via WhatsApp has also been reported in the media: “I sold the goods. May God give you a good market,” he wrote to them. The key issue now is that, despite working as a caretaker at the Palace of Justice in Büyükçekmece, Erdal T. did not have access to the safes, only to the room where they were located; in contrast, the civil servant subsequently arrested, Kemal D., had been working there since 2021 – Erdal T. started working at the court a year later – and did have the keys to both the room and the safes, so he either participated in the robbery or his keys were somehow taken from him.
It appears that the gold and silver stolen from the court came from jewellery seized in an operation against fake citizenship networks in 19 provinces, which resulted in 113 arrests. The Istanbul’s Büyükçekmece Public Prosecutor’s Office is keeping the investigation open for the time being in search of further evidence and possible suspects, and the only person arrested so far, Turkish official Kemal D., is expected to appear in court in the next few days.
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Edited and reviewed by:
Pablo Gómez is a specialist in Turkey and has been editor-in-chief of Hispanatolia since 2011. He has been analysing current affairs and geopolitics in Turkey and the surrounding region since 2006.
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