21.04.2026 20:52
In the investigation conducted regarding the disappearance of Gülistan Doku since 2020, former Tunceli Governor Tuncay Sonel, who was referred to court with a request for his arrest, was asked the question, 'Was Gülistan's body secretly buried?' during the prosecution. Sonel rejected the allegation with the words 'very ugly' and 'baseless slander'.
Former Tunceli Governor Tuncay Sonel, who was detained as part of the investigation into university student Gülistan Doku, who has been missing since January 5, 2020, in Tunceli, was referred to the on-duty criminal court of peace with a request for arrest on charges of "destroying, concealing, or altering evidence of a crime."
5 SEPARATE CHARGES AGAINST SONEL The charges brought by the prosecutor against Sonel have also been revealed. It was learned that Sonel is charged with destroying, concealing, or altering evidence of a crime; obstructing, damaging, or destroying data in an information system; violating the privacy of private life; unlawfully obtaining personal data; and destroying, damaging, or concealing an official document.
Former Tunceli Governor Tuncay Sonel WAS A "SUICIDE" PERCEPTION CREATED? Tuncay Sonel's statement to the prosecutor's office also emerged. Based on the statements of Songül Acar, the prosecutor's office also asked Sonel about the allegations that after Gülistan Doku's disappearance, the incident was consistently kept within the framework of the dam and suicide. Witness statements included the claim, "The governor was saying that this girl committed suicide and was in the dam." Sonel denied this; he argued that the searches were continued only due to the family's insistence.
However, other questions during the interrogation strengthened suspicions on this matter. Despite finding some items in the dam said to belong to Gülistan, the body not being found, the assessments of expert teams that "she is not in the dam," and the extension of searches despite this, were directly questioned by the prosecutor's office.
Gülistan Doku HE DENIED THE "BODY WAS BURIED" ALLEGATIONS One of the heaviest parts of the interrogation came through the statements of the secret witness "Şubat." The prosecutor's office directly asked about the claim that Mustafa Türkay Sonel called his father or the protection police saying he had killed someone, and then that Gülistan Doku's body was transported in a vehicle belonging to the governorate and buried on the Pertek-Koçpınar line.
Tuncay Sonel rejected this account with the words "very ugly," "despicable slander." However, the fact that such a heavy scenario entered the interrogation text revealed the gravity of the point the investigation has reached. The file is no longer just about a missing person; it is progressing in a multi-layered manner around possibilities of murder, evidence destruction, and cover-up.