07.11.2026 19:15
Trabzon Chief Public Prosecutor's Office completed the investigation into the armed attack carried out in Sürmene on the Fenerbahçe team bus on April 4, 2015, while returning from Rize. In the 26-page indictment, a case was filed against 5 suspects, including detainees, on charges of attempted premeditated murder of 39 people and damage to property. It was stated that HTS and base station records contradicted the defense of the suspect, who said he was at home on the evening of the incident.
The Trabzon Chief Public Prosecutor's Office completed the investigation into the armed attack carried out at the Sürmene Viaduct location on April 4, 2015, against the bus carrying the Fenerbahçe Football Team on its return from the away match in Rize. In the 26-page indictment, a lawsuit was filed against 5 people, including detained suspects, requesting their punishment for the crimes of 'Attempted Premeditated Murder' against 39 people and 'Damage to Property' against the bus owner.
Upon the instruction of Minister of Justice Akın Gürlek, the file concerning the April 4 attack on the Fenerbahçe Sports Club football team was taken under re-examination. As a result of the examination by the Ministry of Justice's Unsolved Crimes Investigation Department, a process for reversal for the benefit of the law was initiated regarding the file.
In the reopened file concerning the incident, which has been a subject of debate particularly in the sports public for years, HTS (call records) analyses, base station signal maps, footprints at the scene, criminal examinations, and the contradictory statements of the suspects were among the important evidence.
11-YEAR SILENCE BROKEN BY HTS AND BASE STATION DATA
In the investigation, which was deepened after the decisions of the Sürmene Chief Public Prosecutor's Office that there were no grounds for additional prosecution were lifted by the Trabzon 1st Criminal Judgeship of Peace, the prosecutor's office examined the digital data of the night of the incident in detail.
The contradictions in the defenses of the suspects Yusuf Ö., Hakan H., Emiral A., Özgür E., and Özden R. K. were evaluated with technical analyses.
COMMUNICATION TRAFFIC PEAKED AT THE TIME OF THE ATTACK
According to the HTS analyses in the file, the general communication traffic among the suspects reached its highest level with 737 calls in April 2015. The period with the most intense communication was the 14th week between March 30 and April 5, 2015, which also includes the day of the attack. During this week, a total of 345 calls were made among the suspects.
The indictment also examined the intensity of calls focused on the time of the attack. According to the hourly distribution of the 72 calls made on the day of the incident, it was determined that communication traffic reached the day's highest level with 20 calls between 22:00 and 22:59, on the 22:18 axis when the attack took place, and that all suspects were active in this communication traffic.
'I WAS AT HOME' DEFENSE CONTRADICTED BY BASE STATION RECORDS
Within the scope of the investigation, information also entered the file that suspect Yusuf Ö., residing at the Seyrantepe location of Soğuksu Neighborhood in Sürmene district, which was considered an escape route after the attack, asked his relative E. Ö., living in the same area, for shotgun shells on the evening of the day of the incident.
Yusuf Ö., who did not accept the accusations, defended that he was at home on the evening of the incident and had no connection with the attack. However, retrospective base station records contradicted this statement. It was determined that Yusuf Ö. and Özden R. K. intensively emitted signals from the same base stations as the bus carrying Fenerbahçe players and technical staff during the incident.
It was reflected in the HTS and base analysis reports that Yusuf Ö. left his home shortly before the time of the incident and moved toward the scene, and that, contrary to his routine residential movement, he received signals from the Yemişli and Soğuksu TV Transmitters base stations during the attack.
In the examination conducted by the Trabzon Provincial Police Department, data belonging to 54 different base station ID numbers obtained from BTK were re-evaluated. As a result of the examination, it was determined that Yusuf Ö. received signals before 22:15 on the evening of the incident from base stations in Sürmene Yemişli Neighborhood, where the players and technical team personnel on the team bus intensively emitted signals.
It was assessed that this finding contradicted the statement of Yusuf Ö., who defended that he was at home on the day of the incident and had no connection with the attack, and that it constituted new evidence. Thereupon, the lifting of the decision of no grounds for additional prosecution regarding Emre Al., Murat D., Nihat S., Tayfun K., and Yusuf Ö. was requested. With its decision dated July 17, 2026, the Trabzon 1st Criminal Judgeship of Peace lifted the Sürmene Chief Public Prosecutor's Office's decision dated August 4, 2020 that there were no grounds for additional prosecution.
IT WAS ASSESSED THAT THE ATTACK WAS PLANNED IN ADVANCE
In the indictment, it was stated that the attack on the bus carrying Fenerbahçe players and technical staff could not have been carried out randomly, and that the act was carried out within the scope of premeditation by being planned in advance.
According to the indictment, it was stated that in order for the driver of the moving bus to be shot, prior notification was required that the bus was approaching the planned scene. Considering that the Rize-Trabzon road is a coastal road, that its right side is the sea and its left side is generally surrounded by forested land, and the distance of the right lane through which the bus passed to the forested area, it was stated that the scene and the area from which the shot would be fired had to be determined in advance in order to fire within the effective range of the shotgun.
In the work carried out, it was determined that the suspects Hakan H., Emiral A., and Özgür E. were present at the fill area in İrfanlı Neighborhood of Of district on the bus route while the Fenerbahçe team bus was passing through the Of district of Trabzon.
In the indictment, it was alleged that these three suspects carried out reconnaissance and lookout activities by tracking the bus's entry into and exit from the Of district, and that they made calls reflected in the HTS records with Yusuf Ö. and Özden R. K. at the scene and conveyed information that the bus was advancing toward the scene.
Although Hakan H. and Özgür E. said in their initial statements that they learned of the bus when they saw a crowd on the road, it was assessed that the HTS records, base station data, and other statements contradicted these statements, and that the explanations in question were aimed at escaping the crime.
CRIME SCENE, WEAPON AND FOOTPRINT FINDINGS
According to the indictment, a double-barreled Superpoze 12-gauge hunting shotgun with serial number 2495, bearing the inscription 'Zafire', was seized in Devran Creek about 130 meters from the scene. It was stated that two fired 12-gauge cartridges were found in the barrel of the shotgun.
It was determined that the shoe print detected on the path at the scene was consistent with the route where Yusuf Ö.'s residence is located.
According to the crime scene investigation reports in the file, the expert reports of the Samsun Criminal Police Laboratory, the report of the Council of Forensic Medicine, the CD Monitoring, Analysis and Evaluation report, the evidence detection report, and the crime scene sketch, it was recorded that the shotgun used in the attack was a Superpoze 12-gauge hunting shotgun, that the window immediately to the left of the bus driver's cabin was completely broken, and that seven pellet marks and perforations were detected in its windshield.
Four shotgun pellets were found inside the bus and one below the palate bone and nasal septum of the injured driver, making a total of five shotgun pellet cores. In the criminal examination, it was determined that the pellets in question were large pellets (buckshot).
According to the forensic medicine and criminal reports, it was determined that the effective range of the shotgun's large pellets was approximately 150 meters, and that the distance between the point from which the shot was fired in the attack and the bus was 40 meters.
Thus, it was assessed that the attack was carried out within the effective range of the shotgun.
ATTEMPTED PREMEDITATED MURDER AGAINST 39 PEOPLE
In the indictment, it was recorded that the bus driver was directly targeted in the head area and that pellet cores belonging to the shotgun pellets were removed from below the palatal bone and the nasal septum.
In the forensic examination report prepared regarding driver Ufuk K., it was stated that he was intubated and that his injury posed a life-threatening danger. Because both shots were fired directly at the driver's seat, the targeted area was the head area, and pellet cores were removed from the driver's body, it was assessed that the attackers acted with direct intent to kill.
The Prosecutor's Office also considered the possibility that, if the driver of the bus traveling at high speed on the intercity road lost his life or became unable to stop the vehicle in a controlled manner, the bus could fall into the sea on the right side, roll down the embankment, or fall down from the viaduct.
Therefore, it was stated that the attack was not directed only at the driver, that it endangered the lives of 39 people including the driver on the bus, and that the suspects acted jointly and with premeditation against 39 complainants with intent to kill.
In the indictment, it was alleged that, within the scope of a single act carried out by the suspects with the will to commit a crime together, they committed the crimes of "Attempted Premeditated Murder" separately against 39 complainants other than the bus owner, and "Damage to Property" against İsmail Kopuz.
Within the scope of the provisions on ideal concurrence of different types of offences regulated in Article 44 of the Turkish Criminal Code, it was stated that the suspects, who caused multiple different offences to arise through a single act, should be punished for the crime of attempted premeditated murder requiring the heaviest penalty.
It was reported that the evidence indicating that the suspects committed the crimes included HTS analysis reports, base station information regarding their locations during the conversation, their statements contradicting each other and the base station records available in the file, crime scene investigation reports, expert reports, the Forensic Medicine Institute report, the CD monitoring, analysis and evaluation record, the evidence determination record, the crime scene sketch, and the entire scope of the case file.
The Prosecutor's Office requested that the shotgun used in the attack be confiscated, that is, that a decision be made to transfer its ownership to the public. The case file was sent to the Trabzon Heavy Penal Court.
WHAT HAPPENED ON THE NIGHT OF 4 APRIL 2015?
On 4 April 2015, after the match played between Çaykur Rizespor and Fenerbahçe, the bus with license plate 53 DE 618 carrying the yellow-navy delegation was targeted with a shotgun as it arrived at the viaduct location in Soğuksu Neighborhood of Sürmene district in Trabzon.
As a result of the gunfire, bus driver Ufuk K. was seriously injured in his left temple, and the footballers and coaching staff on the bus narrowly escaped a great danger. Despite his injury, the driver managed to stop the bus in a controlled manner, preventing the possibility of the bus rolling down the embankment or falling into the sea.
The 12-gauge double-barreled shotgun bearing the inscription "Zafire" used in the attack was seized in Devran Creek, approximately 130 meters from the scene, together with spent cartridges.
During the investigation, although a decision of no grounds for additional prosecution was made in 2020, the file was reconsidered and a comprehensive examination was conducted over HTS and base station data. In line with new evidence obtained in 2026, the non-prosecution decision was lifted and the investigation was deepened.
In the indictment, while it was assessed that the suspects carried out the act together and with prior planning, the court process regarding the incident began with the evidence file consisting of 12 folders. The suspects are expected to appear before a judge in the coming days.