Turkey’s justice minister has suggested that Adil Öksüz, a theology lecturer whom prosecutors describe as a civilian coordinator of the July 15, 2016 coup attempt and who disappeared after a judge released him from custody, may have been killed to prevent him from talking.
Bekir Bozdağ made the remark in an interview with Milliyet’s Abdullah Karakuş, saying the government had no definite information on Öksüz’s whereabouts.
“Öksüz may be being hidden somewhere in Turkey by someone, or he may have been taken abroad,” Bozdağ said. “Or he may have been killed so he would not talk. We do not currently have definite information to determine which of these possibilities is correct.”
He added that the state was using all available means to find Öksüz and that his ability to move around inside Turkey was “very weak.”
The statement drew attention because Bozdağ had previously said he believed Öksüz was still being hidden in Turkey, while also acknowledging that he had no evidence to support an execution theory. “If Adil Öksüz is caught and talks, many dark questions about July 15 will be clarified,” Bozdağ said in an earlier television appearance.
Öksüz was detained near Akıncı Air Base outside Ankara after the coup attempt. Prosecutors say the base was one of the main military sites used during the attempted takeover.
He was released under judicial supervision after questioning by a judge, Köksal Çelik. A prosecutor’s objection to the release was later rejected by another judge, Çetin Sönmez, who said there was not enough evidence to jail him pending trial. A new detention warrant was later issued for Öksüz, but he has not been found.
The case has become one of the most disputed parts of Turkey’s coup-attempt investigations because Öksüz was released despite being presented by prosecutors as a central civilian figure in the alleged plot.
An indictment prepared over his release said 28 people were under investigation, including 13 soldiers, 14 police personnel and one Prime Ministry adviser.
That adviser, Ali İhsan Sarıkoca, allegedly went to the gendarmerie station where Öksüz was being held and met with him while he was in custody, according to the indictment reported by T24. The indictment also said officials had learned before Öksüz was brought before judicial authorities that he was alleged to be a senior Gülen movement figure, but that this information was not properly passed on to prosecutors or senior officials.
Opposition figures have repeatedly questioned whether Öksüz was genuinely being sought or whether he was being protected by elements within the state.
In September 2016, Cumhuriyet reported on claims that Öksüz had not escaped but was “in the hands of the state,” a claim aired in connection with questions raised by Republican People’s Party leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu over who allowed Öksüz’s file to be emptied before his release.
CHP lawmaker Muharrem İnce later asked whether Öksüz might be “in their hands” and could be produced at a politically useful moment.
The handling of the judges involved has also fueled suspicion.
Sönmez, the judge who rejected the prosecutor’s objection after Öksüz’s release, was detained and later jailed after first being released under house arrest. TR724 reported in May that no detention or arrest step had been taken against Çelik, the judge who made the original release decision.
Bozdağ’s new formulation therefore does more than raise another possibility about Öksüz’s fate.
It shifts attention back to the state’s own handling of one of the most consequential detainees captured after the coup attempt: why Öksüz was released, who knew his alleged status at the time, why a Prime Ministry adviser met him in custody and why the authorities have been unable to locate him since.
Ankara blames the coup attempt on the Gülen movement, a transnational civic initiative inspired by Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen, and designates the movement as a terrorist organization. The movement denies involvement in the coup attempt or any terrorist activity.
