"Beat & Release": Mafia-friendly Police Deliver Man for Execution by Drug Family, in Istanbul

türkçe links to original Turkish article

(Hürriyet Newspaper, 5 February 2022)

2012 incident in Silivri click here for a TNT report

from February 2012 about two Baybaşin brothers

held in Silivri prison in Istanbul for drug dealing.

The eagle ("Kartal") has landed...for good. (or not so good).

Police found the body of Murat Kartal, who had been missing for 4

days, in a hole in a field in Büyükçekmece, Istanbul.  Kartal's head was

wrapped in a plastic bag and his hands were bound with tape.  Kartal

had gone to prison in 2015 for killing Edip Fırat of the Baybaşin family, 

which has ties to the narcotics trade.  Kartal was released from prison 

earlier this year but was then taken into custody by two policemen who 

delivered him to the Baybaşin family (!). 

Construction contractor Edip Fırat was a member of the Baybaşin 

family but he legally changed his surname to Fırat.  On 23 December 

2015 Fırat came to one of his new construction sites, at Ertaş Street in 

the İçerenköy neighborhood of Ataşehir district in Istanbul.  There, 

Fırat argued with Kartal, a former renter of his who had failed to pay a 

1,750 TL water bill upon leaving the rented apartment.  

During a previous encounter on this matter, Fırat had hit Kartal, who

had a police record of 20 crimes.  Kartal then shot and killed Fırat.  

Kartal was sent to prison for the murder and then released at the 

beginning of this year.  However (!), Kartal disappeared, but by means

of a secret tip to the Anatolia Public Prosecutor on 22 January, police

learned that two of their own had delivered Kartal to the Baybaşin 

family, whose members tortured Kartal and dumped in the hole in 

Büyükçekmece.   

A police investigation revealed that two policemen had taken Kartal 

from his home on 20 January, saying "there's a complaint about you.

We're taking you to the police station."  The two policemen then 

turned over Kartal to the Baybaşin family for money.  Subsequently,

police arrested policemen Erdem Öntürk and Fatih Erkoç, along with 

Edip Fırat's uncle Yavuz Yavuztürk, his father Mehmet Emin Baybaşin,

Habip B., Faysal G. and Hasan A.  Abdulsamet Turgut, a former 

Turkish parliamentarian (!)  and Tahsin C. were released to await trial.