An Istanbul court has decided to release the man who assaulted the leader of Turkish main opposition party (the CHP), Özgür Özel, after he was sentenced to one year in prison for punching Özel hard last May as he left the funeral for the well-known politician Sırrı Süreyya Önder.
The incident occurred on 4 May when Özel and his entourage were leaving the Atatürk Cultural Centre (AKM) in Istanbul for the funeral of Önder, a member of the pro-Kurdish DEM party and deputy speaker of the Turkish parliament, who died of a heart attack. It was just as they were leaving the building that a man suddenly approached Özel and struck him a heavy blow to the head, knocking the opposition leader to the ground and leaving him stunned. The attacker was quickly arrested and identified as Selçuk Tengioğlu, 66, who after questioning was remanded in custody on 6 May.
Turkish media reported on Monday that, during the trial session for the assault on the opposition leader held today, the court at the Çağlayan Palace of Justice found the defendant guilty of “causing bodily harm to a person holding a public office”; the judge sentenced Tengioğlu to 12 months in prison for the crime, but taking into account the short sentence and the time he had already spent in pre-trial detention, ordered his immediate release.
The prosecution had asked for up to 4.5 years in prison for the perpetrator of the assault, pointing out in the indictment that the man had apparently been waiting for about 3 hours for Özel outside the AKM, as revealed by security cameras. Based on this and other evidence, the prosecutor had charged Tengioğlu with “intentional bodily damage due to the public office held by the person”.
In his statement to the court, Tengioğlu explained that the attack was not premeditated and that the encounter with the Turkish opposition leader was accidental, adding that the motive for the attack was an old grudge against him. The investigation against the accused did not reveal any connections to political parties or organisations, nor did it find evidence that he suffered from mental problems; however, it did reveal that Tengioğlu had been sentenced to life imprisonment for killing two of his sons in 2004 in İskenderun (Hatay), despite which he was released on parole in 2020: a fact that has sparked public outrage.
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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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