Rights groups urge Turkey to probe new claims on journalists' unsolved murders

Eighteen rights groups called on the Turkish government to launch an investigation into new claims regarding the unsolved murders of two prominent investigative journalists, Uğur Mumcu and Kutlu Adalı. In May, mafia leader Sedat Peker had said that former Interior Minister Mehmet Ağar and former intelligence official Korkut Erken were responsible for the murders of Mumcu and Adalı, who were respectively killed in 1993 and 1996.

Wednesday June 16 2021 10:30 pm

Kutlu Adalı (L) and Uğur Mumcu.

Duvar English

The International Press Institute (IPI) and 17 international rights groups on June 16 sent open letters to the Turkish Justice Minister Abdulhamit Gül and political parties urging the authorities to launch an investigation into new allegations in connection with the unsolved murders of investigative journalists Uğur Mumcu and Kutlu Adalı.

Rights groups emphasized the lack of thorough investigation into the recent allegations about the two prominent journalists’ killings, made by mafia leader Sedat Peker.

In a YouTube video on May 23, Peker said that former police chief and minister Mehmet Ağar and former intelligence official Korkut Erken were responsible for the murders of Mumcu and Adalı.

Two days after these statements, Peker's brother Atilla Peker confirmed in written testimony to prosecutors saying that he was hired as a hitman by Eken to murder Adalı in the spring of 1996.

Mumcu was killed in Ankara in 1993 after somebody rigged his car to explode when he switched on the ignition. The perpetrators were never identified.

Turkish Cypriot journalist Adalı was shot dead in front of his home in 1996 in Nicosia. His killers have been also not identified.

Rights groups' letters also touched upon the attack to Hürriyet newspaper in 2015 confessed to be organized by Peker as part of an effort to intimidate Hürriyet’s former owner Aydın Doğan.

Activists called on the Justice Ministry to pursue those responsible for the murders of Mumcu and Adalı and the attack on Hürriyet newspaper.

In letters to main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) chair Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) co-chairs Pervin Buldan and Mithat Sancar, İYİ (Good) Party chair Meral Akşener, Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) chair Devlet Bahçeli, international groups have called for inter-party collaboration to end impunity in the cases of the killed journalists.