The case against three men Veysel Sare, Musa Çiçek and Ömer Tunç, arrested in connection with the shooting in February of a Kyrenia casino boss and his bodyguard began yesterday, Yeniduzen reports.
The trial, which had been postponed a number of times to enable the prosecution to gather further evidence, began with the testimony of a former bodyguard who witnessed the shooting the suspects of the murder of Halil Falyalı and and his bodyguard Murat Demirtaş.
Giving evidence, Turkistan Gülce, a former bodyguard of Falyalı, said the following:
“We picked up Halil Falyalı from the hotel at around 18:30 on the day of the incident and set off for his home. We drove towards Çatalköy with Falyalı’s official car in the front and me and my other bodyguard in the back. When we entered Çatalköy, we saw that a grey rental car had stopped at the bend. Murat Demirtaş, the driver of Falyalı, first honked the horn and then stopped the car. Me and my other bodyguard friend got out of the vehicle. We went to Falyalı’s vehicle. Falyali pointed at the vehicle with his head and asked us to look. We headed there to understand why the grey vehicle stopped. Suddenly guns exploded. I looked where the sound came from and only saw the shooting in the dark, but I did not see those who opened fire.I started running forward, hiding in the garden of a nearby house. After a while, I saw the grey vehicle heading towards Ozanköy. I did not see who was in the vehicle, how many people were there. I left the garden and went to Falyalı’s vehicle. Demirtaş and Falyalı were motionless in the vehicle. Then I called Hüsnü Falyalı and the ambulance. 10 minutes later, the vehicle belonging to Falyalı’s wife Özge Hanım arrived at the scene. Then the police and ambulance arrived”.
Answering a question put by the defence, Gülce said: I didn’t say in my first statement that I opened fire. However, when I was arrested after Falyalı’s funeral, I fired two shots at the grey vehicle in order to maybe stop it”.
Following Gülce’s statement, the hearing was adjourned to 11:00 today (Friday).
