Drug dealer's prison death raises storm in Turkey

[ozgurluk at xs4all.nl]

   ISTANBUL, Dec 29 (AFP) - The mysterious suicide of a drug  
trafficker who had accused the police of links to organised crime 
sparked a storm of questions in the Turkish press on Tuesday. 
   An official inquiry into the death of Huseyin Uzun, found hanged  
on Saturday in the toilets at the Organised Crime Bureau in 
Istanbul, ruled on Monday that the jailed drugs trafficker had 
committed suicide. 
   Huseyin gave himself up to police last week and the press said  
he had made a lengthy confession accusing high-ranking Istanbul 
police officials of taking bribes from drugs barons. 
   His accusations focused on the former chief of the anti-drugs  
squad Ferruh Tankus, who was sacked from his post last week. 
   Tankus, who was demoted to the rank of local police station  
chief, accused his superiors of taking four million dollars in 
bribes from mafia bosses in return for his dismissal after his 
crackdown on the drugs trade. 
   Uzun's lawyer disputed the suicide verdict, arguing that his  
180- centimetres (six foot) tall client could not have hanged 
himself in the alleged space, which was only 150 centimetres (five 
feet) high. 
   He said: "A suicide should look like a suicide."  
   The Turkish press asked Tuesday whether Uzun had been silenced  
by the men he had accused or by his police questioners. The press 
also mooted the idea that he had been killed by the mafia. 
   The popular daily Sabah said: "Scandals which can overthrow a  
government in a civilised country are accepted in our country as 
ordinary events." 
   The government of outgoing premier Mesut Yilmaz collapsed last  
month amid allegations of the premier's links with organised crime. 
  	   	

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