The Sinan Ateş trial continues on its second day! 14 defendants will make their defense.

The second hearing of the trial with 22 defendants regarding the murder of Former Idealist Hearths Education and Culture Foundation President and Hacettepe University Lecturer Assoc. Prof. Dr. Sinan Ateş has started. In the first trial, the defendants mostly denied their previous statements.

CLAIMED THE MURDER WAS A "DEBT ISSUE"

The hitman Eray Özyağcı, one of the defendants, claimed for the first time that he did everything under the order of Doğukan Çep, while Çep, who is being tried as the instigator, claimed that he asked for help from Sinan Ateş regarding a case against him and as a result, Ateş took money from him and planned the attack because he did not pay it back. On the second day, the defendants are presenting their defenses.

DEFENSES OF 14 DEFENDANTS WILL BE HEARD

In today's hearing of the trial held at Ankara 32nd Heavy Penal Court, the detained defendants Murat Can Çolak, Ufuk Köktürk, Mustafa Uzunlar, Osman Bayraktar, Mehmet Yücel, Çağlar Zorlu, Aytaç Ataç, Serdar Öktem, Caner Günay, Emre Yüksel, Umut Ersoy, Alper Atay, Erdem Karadeniz, and Mustafa Ensay Aykal will present their defenses.

CLAIMED NOT TO KNOW THE HITMAN

The trial started with the defense of the detained police officer Murat Can Çolak, who is said to have brought the hitman Eray Özyağcı from Istanbul to Ankara by car.

Çolak claimed that he went to Ankara upon the request of his police friend Aşkın Mert Gelenbey and stated that he did not know Eray Özyağcı. He said, "I asked Aşkın Mert Gelenbey, 'Who is this, what's his story?' He said he was his friend and there was no problem. I mostly slept in the car because I had been drinking."

INSTIGATOR NODDED AT THE JOURNALISTS

Doğukan Çep, who organized the assassination, looked at the section where the journalists were and nodded while being brought into the courtroom. When the trial started, a defense lawyer criticized politicians sitting with the plaintiffs, stating that it created pressure on the parties.

"DON'T LOOK FOR ANYTHING UNDERNEATH THIS"

The Chief Judge said to the lawyer, "Such an arrangement was made for the safety of the parties. Don't look for anything underneath this. It doesn't matter to us who is on that side or this side. It doesn't concern us."