In the early hours of 19 June, the Turkish police rescued a senior official in charge of a cultural organisation linked to the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality, 33 hours after he had been kidnapped outside his home. It so happens that the victim is accused by the public prosecutor’s office of fraud in a case linked to the corruption investigation against the city’s former mayor, Ekrem İmamoğlu.
Erhan Karaal, deputy director-general of Kültür A.Ş. (a company responsible for cultural activities linked to the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality), was abducted by unidentified individuals whilst standing outside his home in the Maltepe district, on the Asian side of Istanbul, shortly after 9.00 pm on 17 June. After being held for approximately 33 hours, he was located and freed during a police operation that found him inside a prefabricated structure situated on an abandoned building site in the Tuzla district, on the outskirts of Istanbul.
Officers found him with his hands and feet bound. The victim continues to receive medical treatment in hospital. During his captivity, he was violently beaten and suffered from dehydration, although his lawyer has confirmed that the injuries he sustained are not life-threatening. During the rescue operation, a suspect armed with a pistol who was guarding him was arrested.
Furthermore, following the earlier arrest of five suspects earlier in the day, the authorities have arrested a sixth person implicated in the case. According to the Turkish newspaper Hürriyet, the total number of people arrested in connection with the investigation now stands at eight, whilst the search for a further eight suspects who allegedly travelled from outside the city to take part in the kidnapping continues.
New details about the kidnapping
The investigation has brought to light new details about the case of Erhan Karaal in recent hours. Apparently, those arrested include a former employee who had been sacked from his previous job at the municipality and two contractors who had previously worked with the metropolitan municipality. Investigators have established that these two suspects, who stopped receiving contracts from the Istanbul municipality after the management of the famous Basilica Cistern was taken over by the Ministry of Culture, pressured Karaal to award them new municipal projects.
It has also emerged that the kidnappers phoned his wife and threatened her, telling her that they knew they had money and that they would demand a ransom for her husband’s release. The investigation has revealed that the kidnappers arrived at the scene in two vehicles and that, after forcibly taking Karaal away, they transferred him from one car to another to avoid detection. They then drove along side streets until they joined the D-100 motorway, and subsequently hid the victim at up to four different locations.
The police had to analyse hundreds of hours of CCTV footage to identify and locate those responsible for the abduction, and went on to search a total of 19 addresses in Istanbul and the neighbouring provinces of Kocaeli and Yalova. Although they did not initially find the victim, they eventually determined that he was being held in an empty warehouse in the Tuzla district of Istanbul.
From there, the Turkish security forces carried out a particularly meticulous operation after confirming that Karaal was being guarded by an armed man. Teams from the Tuzla District Police Department carried out a surprise raid on the premises and managed to rescue the victim, who was found sitting on the floor with her hands and feet bound.
New footage of the incident has come to light
“I believe there is undoubtedly a great deal of confusion in this case. They chose the wrong target because it makes no sense at all. I haven’t heard or know anything about money. Our security forces are investigating everything in detail,” said Ayşe Toprak Karaal, the victim’s wife, who claims she has not slept since her husband was abducted and who had previously told the media that the family had no known enemies or debts.
Whilst the Istanbul police continue to investigate both the identity of the kidnappers and the motives behind the abduction of this senior municipal official, new footage of the moment of the kidnapping has come to light. They show Karaal walking along the pavement with a mobile phone in his hand when several people block his path; the footage shows three individuals grabbing him by the arm and forcibly dragging him into a vehicle that had just pulled up on the street, whilst the victim, unable to comprehend what was happening, is forced into the car, which then speeds away from the scene.
VOTE
EDITORIAL TEAM
🧿 About us
.
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.
…
📣 Your ADVERTISING on Hispanatolia
.
🤗 HELP US WITH A DONATION:
💗 Paypal
