According to the statement made by the Ministry of Interior, Ankara University Faculty Member Assoc. Dr. Fugitive retired Colonel Mustafa Levent Göktaş, one of the suspects of the Necip Hablemitoğlu assassination, was caught.
The statement from the Ministry of Interior is as follows:
“At the request of the Interpol Department of the General Directorate of Security, a red notice was issued about him, Ankara University Faculty Member Assoc. Dr. Fugitive retired colonel Mustafa Levent Göktaş, one of the suspects of Necip Hablemitoğlu's assassination, was caught in Svilengrad, Bulgaria.
The Ministry of Justice and the EGM Interpol Department have started proceedings to extradite Göktaş to Turkey.”
Who is Levent Goktas?
Mustafa Levent Göktaş (born 8 June 1959; Erbaa, Tokat) is a Turkish soldier and lawyer of Circassian descent.
While working in the Turkish Armed Forces, he took part in the expulsion of Abdullah Öcalan, the leader of the PKK terrorist organization, from Syria and his capture in Kenya and bringing him to Turkey. He served as a regiment commander in the Combat Search and Rescue Unit under the Special Forces Command under the General Staff. He is the only person in the Turkish Armed Forces to have 3 medals of superior courage and renunciation. After retiring from military service in 2004, he started working as a freelance lawyer.
He was detained in the 7th wave operation of the Ergenekon investigation on 2009 January 10 and was arrested a few days later on the charge of "being a member of an armed terrorist organization". He denied the accusations.
He was sentenced to 5 years and 2013 months in prison in the Ergenekon case, which was decided by the Istanbul 13th High Criminal Court on August 20, 9. He was released on 5 March 10 following the Constitutional Court's decision that the Specially Authorized Courts were abolished, the maximum period in detention was reduced to 2014 years, and the Ergenekon court did not write its reasoned decision. The 16th Penal Chamber of the Supreme Court of Appeals, which examined the decision on the appeal, overturned the decision of the Istanbul 21th High Criminal Court on April 2016, 13. On June 9, 2022, in the investigation of the Hablemitoğlu murder, 9 retired soldiers, including Levent Göktaş, were detained. But Göktaş could not be found at his address. A red notice was issued by Interpol on 31 August. He was captured and detained in Svilengrad, Bulgaria, on September 2, 2022.
Levent Göktaş is fluent in Russian, English, Arabic and Kurdish.
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