Suspect in murder case released without being interrogated

A former official of the Turkish Grey Wolves, who is implicated for involvement in the recent assassination of former Grey Wolves leader, was detained at the house of a deputy for the far right Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) and subsequently released without being interrogated, Alican Uludag of Deutsche Welle (DW) Turkish said on Tuesday.

Sinan Ates, former leader of the Grey Wolves - the unofficial youth wing of MHP - was murdered in an armed attack in Ankara on 30 December.

DW's Alican Uludag said:

"One of the suspects in the ongoing investigation is a former official of the Grey Wolves, Tolgahan Demirbas. On the instructions of the prosecution, a police team from the Homicide Department took action to detain Demirbas. However, it turned out that Demirbas was staying in the house of MHP's Mersin deputy Olcay Kilavuz. Kilavuz objected to Demirbas's detention saying that he is in a deputy's house, but withdrew when the police insisted to take Demirbas under custody. Demirbas was subsequently released by the prosecution without being interrogated."

Demirbas is accused of aiding the hitmen who killed Sinan Ates in Ankara, Uludag added.

An official of MHP's Istanbul branch, Ufuk Kokturk, was earlier arrested on suspicion of taking part in the planning of the assassination. There are allegations that a fund transfer was made from the bank account of Kokturk's wife to one of the murder suspects.