25 January 2013

Suspect in the Paris PKK murders

Further to the murder of three PKK activists in Paris, the prosecutor's office arrested a man by the name of Omer Guney.

But you would not know it unless you really searched for it. Le Monde had a piece but it was buried behind the subscription firewall. BBC mentioned it in its Turkish language news site. For the rest, it was discussed in obscure (and somewhat dubious) Web sites in Turkish.

There was a claim that he was Sakine Cansiz' driver. It turns out that she did not have a driver.

A couple of Web sites claimed that he was in love with a Kurdish woman who dislike Cansiz and therefore it was a crime of passion.

For good measure they published his FaceBook page where he wrote about his attraction to an unnamed flight attendant and his desire to drink to forget.

Some sites published an ID that showed he was a member of a Kurdish association in France, implying that he was a member of the PKK.

It was reported that Guney usually said that one of his parents was Kurdish, the other Turkish but by all appearances he seems to be of Turkish descent. Reportedly, there are no Kurds in the small village in which he grew up.

His uncle went on Turkish TV and said that his nephew had a brain tumor and therefore he would be incapable of carrying out such a crime.

In short, there is a furious media and disinformation campaign going on and despite a prolonged custody, not much is known about the evidence against him. Or about his motives.

It looks probable that his arrest was linked to CCTV cameras, as I suggested. He was seen going in and coming out at around the same time the murders wee committed.

French police leaked that he had gun shot residue on his trousers and a bag he was seen carrying. They even mentioned that he washed the heavy coat he was wearing that day, possibly to remove relevant evidence.

The prosecutor mentioned that they found an unidentifiable partial print on one of the cartridges left on the murder scene and DNA residue. Interestingly, the DNA did not match Guney's, suggesting that he was not alone.

As Alice said, curiouser and curiouser.

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