12.05.2026 00:10
In the investigation concerning Gülistan Doku, a Munzur University student who has been missing since January 5, 2020, in Tunceli, 7 suspects who were detained have been transferred from Elazığ Closed Prison to Erzurum H-Type High Security Closed Prison. Among those suspects was Mustafa Türkay Sonel, the son of former Tunceli Governor Tuncay Sonel.
Ebru Cansu, one of Turkey's 3 female chief prosecutors appointed to Tunceli with the June 2024 decree of the Council of Judges and Prosecutors (HSK), took the Gülistan Doku case file off the shelf and began examining it as soon as she took office.
17 SUSPECTS DETAINED
Following the order of Chief Prosecutor Ebru Cansu, who re-examined the investigation, a special team consisting of personnel from the Gendarmerie Crime Investigation Teams (JASAT), known as 'Gendarmerie Detectives', was formed. All KGVS footage and PTS records from the city for the day before and the day of Gülistan Doku's disappearance were collected. New images of Gülistan were found, and 70 KGVS cameras in total, including 67 main arteries, along with an additional 700 hours of footage from security cameras were added to the case file. The footage revealing where Gülistan came from to the café where she met her boyfriend Zeinal Abarakov before her disappearance, when she left the café and went to her teacher, was watched second by second by the chief prosecutor's office and the special team to investigate Gülistan's fate.
Additionally, some suspects were added to the case file, and HTS and PTS analyses were conducted. After the necessary work was completed, an operation was launched. In the case, which turned from a missing persons case into a 'murder' investigation, operations were carried out on April 14, 17, and 24 on suspicion of murder. 17 suspects were detained. A red notice was issued for Umut Altaş, a suspect in the case who is in the USA.
12 SUSPECTS, INCLUDING THE FORMER GOVERNOR AND HIS SON, ARRESTED
Among the suspects referred to the courthouse after their processing at the gendarmerie, Mustafa Türkay Sonel, son of former Tunceli Governor Tuncay Sonel, and Erdoğan Elaldı, who was determined to have had last contact with Gülistan Doku through cell site location data and was a Special Provincial Administration employee at the time, were arrested on charges of 'Premeditated murder'. Gülistan Doku's ex-boyfriend Zeinal Abarakov, Abarakov's father Engin Yücer and mother Cemile Yücer, fugitive suspect Umut Altaş's father Celal Altaş and mother Nurşen Arıkan, dismissed police officer Gökhan Ertok, and Şükrü Eroğlu, who was Tuncay Sonel's close bodyguard at the time, were arrested on charges of 'Concealing and destroying evidence'. Ferhat Güven was arrested and sent to prison on charges of 'Robbery' for his action against Gülistan Doku's sister Aygül Doku. Çağdaş Özdemir, the former chief physician of Tunceli State Hospital, who was detained in Bursa on allegations of deleting Gülistan Doku's hospital records and brought to Tunceli Courthouse, was also arrested on charges of 'Falsifying, destroying or concealing official documents'. Tuncay Sonel was arrested and sent to prison on charges of 'Destroying, concealing or altering evidence', 'Obstructing, corrupting, destroying or altering data in an information system, unlawfully giving or obtaining personal data', and 'Falsifying, destroying or concealing official documents'. Suspects U.A., S.G. (responsible for cameras at Munzur University), and S.Ö. were released under judicial supervision. Tunceli State Hospital IT staff Burçin Y. and Yücel E., detained on charges of 'Destroying and concealing evidence' for allegedly deleting hospital records, were released under judicial supervision.
7 DETAINEES TRANSFERRED FROM ELAZIĞ TO ERZURUM
Within the scope of the investigation, Mustafa Türkay Sonel, Şükrü Eroğlu, Gökhan Ertok, Zeinal Abakarov, Engin Yücer, Cemile Yücer, and Erdoğan Elaldı, who were detained in Elazığ Closed Penal Institution, were transferred to Erzurum H-Type High Security Closed Prison. It was noted that the transfer decision was linked to the investigation conducted by the Erzurum Chief Public Prosecutor's Office.