Denizkurdu talked to the Taraf daily on Wednesday following recent speculation that was sparked last week when journalist Can Dündar said despite having arranged an interview with Mustafa Duyar, one of three suspects involved in the 1995 murder of Özdemir Sabancı on the 25th floor of the Sabancı Center in İstanbul, the meeting could not take place as Supreme Board of Judges and Prosecutors (HSYK) member Ali Suat Ertosun, who was then head of the Directorate for Prisons and Detention Centers, intervened and prevented it. He said this happened a few days before Duyar was killed in jail.
Ertosun himself has been in the spotlight the past two weeks for wanting to remove prosecutors investigating Ergenekon, a clandestine gang whose suspected members currently stand trial on charges of attempting to foment chaos with the ultimate purpose of triggering an overthrow of the government. The former justice minister told Taraf that Duyar, who had turned himself in, must have given valuable information to MİT. He said nobody has seen his initial testimony but added that this statement should be archived in MİT records. Denizkurdu added that he had heard of reports confirming this impression.
He also said he remembered issuing journalist Dündar permission to visit Duyar in jail for an interview but denied that Ertosun had anything to do with the interview not taking place. “It is impossible for a bureaucrat working for me to go against my orders. Dündar did not go there himself.” Denizkurdu also asked Dündar to explain why he changed his mind at the time and did not visit Dündar in jail.
Commenting on the suggested link between the murder of Sabancı, a second-generation member of one of Turkey's most powerful family conglomerates, and Ergenekon, Denizkurdu said: “Duyar was only the triggerman. The people behind him have not been revealed. This is the question that should be asked.”
