Three found guilty in Kyrenia for murder

Three men were found guilty on Tuesday of 17 charges each in relation to the murder of Turkish Cypriot businessman Halil Falyali and his chauffeur Murat Demirtas in February 2022.

Omer Tunc, Veysel Sare and Musa Cicek were all found guilty of their part in the premeditated assassination of Falyali by Kyrenia’s high criminal court, joining the four who were jailed in Turkey in January for their parts in the crime.

They will be sentenced for their crimes on Wednesday.

Falyali and Demirtas were killed in the early hours of February 8, 2022, when their car was ambushed by men armed with automatic rifles on the road between Kyrenia and Ayios Epiktitos, where he lived.

He was pronounced dead at the Near East University hospital on the outskirts of Nicosia, with the autopsy revealing he had been struck by a total of 16 bullets. Demirtas had been struck by six.

Falyali’s wife and children were following his car in a second vehicle and were not harmed.

Turkish mafia boss Sedat Peker had claimed that a drugs ring involving former Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim’s son Erkam Yildirim was laundering money via Falyali.

Falyali was also arrested in October 2021, having been accused of assaulting an employee who he accused of stealing from his casino, and threatening the employee with his life.

However, the complainant later withdrew his accusations and Falyali was released before the complainant himself was sentenced to two years in prison the following year.

Meanwhile, a day after Falyali’s arrest, an obscene video involving the then ‘prime minister’ of the north Ersan Saner was leaked to the media, with Sedat Peker’s adviser Emre Olur claiming that Peker had obtained the footage from Falyali.

Elsewhere, a warrant for his arrest had been issued in the United States in 2016 on money laundering and drug charges.

In January, Mustafa Soylemez, Abdurrahim Celik, Cengiz Sener and Ender Yildiz were all handed long prison sentences in Turkey for their parts in the murder.

Soylemez, who fired the fatal shots, was handed two life sentences for the premeditated murder of two people, while Celik, Sener and Yildiz were all sentenced to 25 years in prison for aiding and abetting the murder.