Four suspects who murdered an Iraqi Kurdish family jailed pending trial

A Turkish court on Monday remanded four suspects who allegedly killed five members of an Iraqi Kurdish family in Turkey's southeastern province of Mardin. Another suspect was released on condition of judicial review, Turkish media reported.

The suspects, identified by their initials as F.A., A.K., C.B. and M.Y., were captured immediately after they stopped a vehicle on a highway coming from the Iraqi city of Duhok around 01:00 a.m. and killed all the occupants after taking their money.

The deceased were later identified as Abdullah Salih Mustafa, Cimen Sahin Halid, Hindirin Abdullah Salih, Wahida Haydar Casım and Ahmed Celaleddin İbrahim, all belonging to two families from the Kurdish city of Duhok in Iraq.

One of the families, consisting of two people, was visiting Turkey for medical treatment, while the other three people were going to visit relatives in the country, Rudaw news agency reported.

In his statement, suspect A.K. repeatedly told the gendarmerie that it was F.A. who committed the murders. F.A., on the other hand, said that A.K. forced him to pull the trigger.

In a statement, the administration and leaders of the Kurdistan Region called on Turkish authorities to clarify the incident as soon as possible.

The Turkish consul general in Erbil was summoned to the Interior Ministry and a note of protest was sent to Ankara demanding that the incident be investigated and resolved as soon as possible.