Tatlıses assault suspects taken to Istanbul courthouse

Seven suspects, including businessman Abdullah Uçmak, were sent to court Sunday after days of questioning by police on suspicion of attempting to murder Turkish folk singer and businessman İbrahim Tatlıses.

Uçmak denied all allegations during questioning, Doğan news agency, or DHA, reported. Arguing that he has no links to other suspects, Uçmak also said a photograph showing him together with other people of interest at a shopping center was "pure coincidence."

Meanwhile, Tatlıses, who was seriously wounded after the assassination attempt last week, is currently undergoing physiotherapy. In a written statement on Sunday, Çağlar Çuhadaroğlu, the chief physician of the Maslak Acıbadem Hospital at which the singer is being treated, said Tatlıses’ condition was encouraging.

"In the morning examination, [there was] no negative change in intracranial pressure and electrical activity in the brain," Anatolia news agency quoted Çuhadaroğlu as saying.

Buket Çakıcı, who was also wounded in the attack, was discharged Saturday from the same hospital.

Police accuse Uçmak and three others with "attempting to twice commit a murder," according to a written statement from the Istanbul Police Department. The statement claimed that the "instigator" and those who pulled the trigger had "phone contact" and that the instigator purchased two new mobile phones and SIM cards in order not to be detected ahead of the assault.

"The instigator disembarked from a car near the location of the incident [before thee attack] and directed [others] from there," the statement read. "He also assigned another person to inform him on the exit of Tatlıses from the Beyaz TV building. Information from this person was transferred to [those who undertook the attack]."

After spraying Tatlıses and Çakıcı with gunfire, the suspects "escaped using the same car and then broke the phones and SIM cards they used to communicate," said the statement.

Police teams raided 45 different locations after the attack, taking into custody 16 people. Eight of them were released immediately, one was sent to the minors’ branch, while another was arrested Saturday.


/Hurriyet Daily News/