After almost 4 months of trial by the illegal Greek Cypriot court for allegedly dealing heroin and cannabis, he was found guilty on seven drug-related charges and was given a sentence of 30 years. All sentences will run concurrently, reducing the total sentence to 10 years
Although the Greek Cypriot police gave contradicting evidence during the hearing and had no civilian witnesses, the court found that the evidence of the Greek Cypriot police was acceptable.
Greek Cypriot judge Andreas Pascalidis, while claiming that all the witnesses
of the defence were not trustworthy, said, "the evidence given by the
police gave us a good impression. We found that their evidence was trustworthy
and true."
"Police officers, with code names of Costa and Andros, definitely did
not act in a manner to encourage Tekogul to commit a crime. Although we are
aware of the contradictions in their evidence, this does not mean their evidence
is not trustworthy. Their evidence gave us good impression, we have no doubt
that they are telling the truth," said Andreas Pascalidis.
Some of the witnesses of the defence, which the court found not to be trustworthy,
were Greek Cypriot.
One of them was Ms. Luckia Baulidiou of the Greek CITA - GSM company, who confirmed that a telephone card bought in the TRNC would not work in South Cyprus, showing that the Greek Cypriot officers were not telling the truth. Greek Cypriot police claimed that Tekogul gave them a telephone card, which was supposedly used in communicating with him.
The other Greek Cypriot was Andreas Paraskevas, the owner of the 'Pyla Restaurant', who also confirmed with his evidence that the Greek Cypriot police was lying when they claimed that they arrested Tekogul in South Cyprus.
Andreas Paraskevas said that on the night of the incident he went to his restaurant, which was closed that night, where he saw the car of Tekogul parked in front of his restaurant.
In his evidence, Andreas Paraskevas said: "On December 1, I went to my restaurant around 10 PM, where I saw a white car with the Turkish number plates parked in front of my restaurant with its engine running. I went to the Turkish restaurant across the road and asked them to move the car because it was disturbing the neighbours. Then I went into my restaurant and watched television until 12 PM, when I came out the engine was still running."
Apart from the above "not trustworthy" Greek Cypriot witnesses, the court found the evidence of Hasan Yilmazogullari, a Turkish Cypriot witness, as not trustworthy, who told the court how he witnessed the abduction of Tekogul by the Greek Cypriot police in front of the 'Pyla Restaurant'.
The evidence of Ahmet Sakalli, the Turkish Cypriot Alderman of the village, who told the court that he identified the car in front of the 'Pyla Restaurant' with the UN officials serving in the village, was also disregarded.
In short the illegal Greek Cypriot court disregarded all the evidence given by Greek and Turkish Cypriot civilian witnesses in defence of Tekogul and accepted the contradictory evidence of the Greek Cypriot police.
Protesting the decision of the Greek Cypriot judge outside the court, Kemal Tekogul, father of Gazi Tekogul said, "Greek Cypriot police used terrorist methods to kidnap my son and the court used the same terrorist methods to convict him."
"Here (South Cyprus), only terrorist laws are in practice, anything can be expected of these people. Being Turks is our only crime," he said.
There is no doubt that the Tekogul was kidnapped from within the village, where the Greek Cypriot police or the illegal Greek Cypriot regime has no authority.
This case is not a simple criminal case, it is not the first time that the Greek Cypriot police has done this, they have abducted other Turkish Cypriots from the buffer zone before using fabricated charges.
The reason behind this is the argument of the Greek Cypriot side that their police have authority on the entire island.
In her closing statement, Elena Keoba, the Greek Cypriot prosecutor argued: "Although Pyla is a settlement in the Buffer Zone and comes under the control of the UN, the sovereignty of all Cyprus belongs to the 'Cyprus Republic'. The Greek Cypriot police has the right to make operations in this area."
It is precisely this mentality of the Greek Cypriots that they own all of Cyprus, which is the main problem in the Cyprus conflict and hence the reason for no solution.
Greek Cypriot Police Shows its Brutality Yet Again
After the end of the case, two Turkish Cypriot journalist were attacked by the Greek Cypriot police, while they were trying to take pictures of Tekogul being transferred to Nicosia jail.
Accusing Ozmen Yilancilar of the Turkish Cypriot newspaper KIBRIS and Bilbay Eminoglu of KIBRISLI newspaper of taking pictures of the military camp opposite the court, Greek Cypriot police took their films from their cameras using force.
While Ozmen Yilancilar was badly beaten up by the Greek Cypriot police officers, Bilbay Eminoglu was threatened with a gun.
Greek Cypriot journalist Andreas Manolis of Reuters and Fileleftheros tried to take Ozmen Yilancilar away from the Greek Cypriot police.
Protesting the behaviour of the Greek Cypriot police, "No one is taking the picture of the military camp" said Andreas Manolis.
Fearing that the Greek Cypriot police could charge the two Turkish Cypriot journalist by espionage, the two were quickly taken back to TRNC by their other colleagues. Ozmen Yilancilar was taken to hospital for treatment for the injuries he sustained during the attack.
Ironically, the Greek Cypriot media, who judged Tekogul as guilty from the beginning, and who failed to report that there were some Greek Cypriots speaking in defence of Tekogul, reported the brutal attack on the Turkish Cypriot journalists by the Greek Cypriot police as a "small scuffle".
Since the decision of the illegal Greek Cypriot court, the tension in the village has increased considerably. The UN has increased the number of the patrols in the village. The Turkish Cypriots in the village are accusing the UN of collaborating with the Greek Cypriot side and of failing to protect the Turkish Cypriots in the village.
Turkish Cypriot Alderman Ahmet Sakkali said, "We will do everything to stop the intimidation of our young people by the Greek Cypriot police. We will launch complain about the UN soldiers. We do not trust them any longer. We only trust the Turkish army, Turkish army is our only protection."
Failure of the UN to protect the Turkish Cypriots is not new. UN peacekeepers been in Cyprus since 1964 and were never provided real protection for the Turkish Cypriots. They failed to stop hundreds of murders and abduction by the Greek Cypriots.
