Istanbul nightclub gunman captured
Print Edition
TURKISH authorities have captured the gunman who killed 39 people in an Istanbul nightclub on New Year’s Day, an Uzbek national they said was trained in Afghanistan and had clearly acted on behalf of Islamic State.
The suspect, named by Istanbul Governor Vasip Sahin as Abdulgadir Masharipov, was caught in a police raid late on Monday in a hideout in an Istanbul suburb after a two-week manhunt.
Masharipov, who was captured with four others, had admitted his guilt and his fingerprints matched those at the scene, Sahin told a news conference.
“He knew four languages and was well-educated,” Sahin said, adding Masharipov was born in 1983 in Uzbekistan and had received training in Afghanistan.
There were strong indications he had entered Turkey illegally through its eastern borders in January 2016 and it was clear the attack was carried out on behalf of Islamic State, Sahin said.
The jihadist group claimed responsibility a day after the mass shooting, saying it was revenge for Turkish military involvement in Syria.
Masharipov was captured with an Iraqi man and three women from Africa, one of them from Egypt, in the Esenyurt district on Istanbul’s western outskirts, about 30 kilometers from the Reina nightclub. Two pistols, mobile phone SIM cards, two drones and US$197,000 in cash were also seized, Sahin said.
Dogan news agency published a photo of the alleged attacker with a black eye, a cut above his eyebrow and bloodstains on his face and T-shirt. It broadcast footage showing plainclothes police leading a man in a white sweater to a waiting car.
He was being questioned at Istanbul police headquarters, while other people were detained in raids across the city targeting Uzbek Islamic State cells, the state-run Anadolu news agency said.
The gunman appeared to have repeatedly changed addresses before and after the attack. Remaining in Istanbul, he evaded a 16-day nationwide manhunt.
“Five addresses were tracked and operations were carried out against them. He was found at one of the five,” Sahin said.
Masharipov and those seized with him late on Monday had moved to the Esenyurt address around three days ago, he said.
Neighbors in the modern, five-story apartment building where he was found said they had never met him, although they had seen the African women who lived with him.
Masharipov first rented an apartment in Basaksehir, another outlying Istanbul district, before switching addresses a day or two before the attack, the Istanbul governor said.
The Hurriyet newspaper said he was married with two children, was a dual Uzbek-Tajik national and spoke Russian, Arabic, Chinese and Turkish, as well as Uzbek.
He had received two years training in Afghanistan and Pakistan and was believed to have entered Turkey via Iran, it said.
His wife was detained last week in a raid in Maltepe, a coastal district on the Asian side of Istanbul, and their one-and-a-half year-old daughter was taken into care, Hurriyet said.
About 50 people have been detained in raids on 152 addresses since the shooting. Investigators analysed 7,200 hours of camera footage in the search and police received more than 2,000 tip-offs, Sahin said.
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