According to the police, the six people were to be questioned over allegedly soliciting İsmail Çelik, the man who punched Türk in the face and broke his nose, to attack the former DTP leader. Police said the six were detained based on information provided by a tipster identified as İsmet Y. The tipster, who also has a lengthy rap sheet, told the police that he saw Çelik talk to several people before the incident.The individuals detained were identified as Ali Çelik, the father of the main suspect; Kazım T., the owner of the coffeehouse where Çelik is employed; and his friends Savaş A., Mehmet K., Ufuk D. and Adil T.
Türk was punched in the face in early April after he read a press statement outside a courtroom in Samsun where a man was on trial for killing of two people in Muş’s Bulanık district last December. In addition to the two people killed, 10 others were injured on Dec. 16 after Turan Bilen, a storeowner, opened fire on demonstrators protesting the closure of the pro-Kurdish DTP by the Constitutional Court on Dec. 11. The case was being heard at the Samsun 1st High Criminal Court for security reasons. However, in May the Justice Ministry announced that it has decided to change the venue of the trial again after the attack on Türk. The Samsun Prosecutor’s Office applied to the Justice Ministry in late April requesting a change of venue. The Samsun court is now expected to rule the case outside its jurisdiction and refer it to a court in Ankara.
