Gülistan Doku investigation: 'Governor's wife told me to take 100,000 lira, destroy the body'
RastinewsA new development has emerged in the investigation into the fate of Gülistan Doku, a university student who has been missing in Dersim since January 5, 2020.
Handan Sonel, wife of former Tunceli Governor Tuncay Sonel, was detained and later arrested as part of the investigation led by the Tunceli and Erzurum chief public prosecutor's offices.
Witness: 'She paid me 100,000 lira to take away and destroy the body'
One of the most serious accusations in the file came from convicted witness Turan Güler. According to the newspaper Sabah, court records show Güler telling investigators that Handan Sonel paid him 100,000 lira to take away and destroy Gülistan Doku's body, and that Mustafa Türkay Sonel had shot Doku twice.
Handan Sonel denied knowing Turan Güler and said she had never even heard his name before. "He doesn't know me, and I don't know him. I didn't give him 100,000 lira," she said, adding that there was no concrete evidence to support the witness's claim.
'Handan Sonel rushed in panicking the hour Gülistan disappeared and told us to get out'
Another detail in the investigation came from the testimony of Selvi Yeşil, who worked in the kitchen of the governor's residence. Yeşil said that between 1:00 and 1:30 p.m. on January 5, 2020, the day Gülistan Doku disappeared, Handan Sonel came into the kitchen in a panic and told her, "Ms. Selvi, leave right now. Drop everything, get out quickly, go home."
According to the report, the witness said nothing like this had ever happened before, and that camera footage confirmed she left the residence at around 1:36 p.m. During questioning, prosecutors noted that the signal from Gülistan Doku's phone had cut off at 1:22 p.m. and asked Sonel why she had sent her employee out of the residence in a panic. Handan Sonel maintained that no such incident had occurred.
Claim: 'Mustafa Türkay Sonel didn't leave his room for days'
Selvi Yeşil also stated that Mustafa Türkay Sonel behaved unusually in the days following the disappearance. The witness said that for three or four days after January 5, he skipped breakfast, did not leave his room, and did not go to school. Handan Sonel confirmed this but denied any connection to Gülistan Doku's disappearance.
Asked about an expert report showing that Mustafa Türkay Sonel's phone had pinged a signal in the Rostan area between the night of January 13 and the morning of January 14, Handan Sonel replied, "I have no information about that."
What was in the boxes removed from Türkay Sonel's room?
A statement was also taken from Gönül Gülmez, another employee at the governor's residence. Gülmez said that around the time news broke of Gülistan Doku's disappearance, Tuncay Sonel became very angry with his son, packed the belongings from Mustafa Türkay Sonel's room into four boxes, and told staff and bodyguards, "Throw these out, get rid of them."
Handan Sonel said the boxes contained nothing resembling evidence, only worms and insects her son kept to feed his fish.
Sonel said the incident took place not around January 5 but about a month before her son's university entrance exam, when her husband, angry that the boy was fussing over insects instead of studying, threw out the boxes; staff later picked the insects up one by one. The conflicting accounts given by the witness and the suspect over the date of the incident, the number of boxes and their contents were cited in the judge's ruling as one of the investigation's core contradictions.
Digital devices missing from the first search suddenly turn up
One of the points prosecutors emphasized most heavily in their arrest request concerned digital devices seized at Handan Sonel's residence. According to the chief prosecutor's office, three mobile phones, three tablets, two hard disks, a flash drive, an external drive and a laptop — none of which had turned up in an earlier search conducted as part of the investigation into Tuncay Sonel — were seized in a subsequent search.
The court took the absence of these devices from the earlier search as grounds to suspect evidence tampering or concealment.
Gun found in Handan Sonel's home: she says she doesn't know where it came from
A search of Handan Sonel's home turned up a SIG Sauer pistol and three magazines. Prosecutors noted during questioning that the gun was not registered among the weapons licensed to Tuncay Sonel, and that no licensing record for it could be found. Handan Sonel said the pistol was unused and still in its box, and claimed she did not even know it was a real firearm. She said she did not know whether it had been given as a gift or where and from whom it had come, and added that her husband owned two pistols but that she was likewise unaware of their licensing status.
Who told her 'the cars are coming back clean'?
Handan Sonel was also questioned about remarks she made during a visit with her son Mustafa Türkay Sonel, who is being held in prison. A recording of the visit showed her telling her son, "The cars are coming back clean." Prosecutors asked how she had obtained this information before the vehicle examinations were even complete and while a confidentiality order was in place on the file, and whether someone had leaked it to her. Sonel claimed she had seen the information on social media.
She dropped a phone line she had used for years right after the raid
Investigators also examined Handan Sonel's phone records. They found that she stopped using a phone line — registered under her husband's name and in use for roughly 15 to 20 years — immediately after the raid and her husband's detention in the investigation. Prosecutors asked why a new line was then issued in her daughter's name after the raid. Sonel said she stopped using the old line so that no one would put "silly questions" to her. She said she had assumed the seized phone would be returned to her and did not know the old SIM card could be used in another handset.
According to Sol Haber, prosecutors also asked about an allegation that a backup SIM card issued to Gülistan Doku's family had been sent, on Tuncay Sonel's instructions, to Gökhan Ertok, a former police officer in Ankara, without notifying judicial authorities. Handan Sonel said she had no knowledge of this. In her prosecutorial statement, however, she acknowledged overhearing her husband discuss a "SIM card" with someone on the phone after the incident, though she said she did not know when the call took place or who was on the other end. "My husband never came home and told me about his work," Sonel said, adding that she learned the details of the investigation from the press.