Turkish police have arrested a former newspaper employee on suspicion of strangling a journalist’s son to death with a rope and keeping his head in the fridge.
Milli Gazete columnist Mustafa Kasadar went to the police in Istanbul on 10th July to report that his son, Muhammed Nuh Kasadar, had been abducted.
He told how he had received a phone call from former colleague and family friend Hakan O. demanding USD 40,000 (GBP 31,000) for the 19-year-old’s release.
A policeman, posing as Mustafa, managed to negotiate the ransom payment down to TRY 70,000 (GBP 2,000) and arranged to meet the suspect to hand over the cash.
Hakan O., 28, was then arrested and taken in for questioning. He quickly confessed that he had killed the teenager at his flat before getting in touch with the family.
The police raided his third-floor apartment in Bayrampasa and found a deep freezer inside. When they opened it, they came across the grim sight of severed limbs.
Inside a fridge, they came across the even grimmer sight of Muhammed’s head, while his torso was found inside a suitcase, according to sources from the prosecution.
It was later found that one part of the victim’s body had been skinned and thrown out with the rubbish, according to reports.
Officers seized two bread knives and a fruit knife from the flat and sent them for analysis to determine if they had been used to chop up the body.
In his statement to the police, Hakan O. revealed that he had worked at Milli Gazete until he was sacked from his job three years ago.
It is not clear what his role at the Islamist daily was.
He confessed: “I worked at his father’s workplace, so I know him. On Monday, we had breakfast together. Then we went to my flat and started smoking shisha.
“While we were chatting, past issues came up and we started arguing. I got angry and killed him by strangling him with a rope.
“Then I wanted to get rid of the body. I dismembered it and put it in the deep freezer to prevent it from smelling.”
Hakan O. was taken into custody, where he is being kept pending trial.
