Key fugitive suspect in ISIS trials alleged to die in mysterious car accident

Duvar English

Heysem Topalca, a fugitive suspect in trials related to the 2013 Reyhanlı bomb attack and ISIS attack in Niğde in 2014, has allegedly died in a mysterious car accident.

The car that Topalca was in crashed with a truck in the Central Anatolian province of Konya on Feb. 10, according to various reports. 

The police registered the incident as a “fatal traffic accident” and put down Topalca's name as one of the people who died.

Following the incident, the truck's driver has been released.

Topalca is said to have been buried in the border town of Yayladağı in the southern province of Hatay by security forces.

Yayladağı Cemetry wrote on its Facebook account that Topalca's funeral ceremony had taken place on Feb. 11.

Topalca's name was in various reports following the outbreak of the Syrian civil war. Despite his involvement in ISIS attacks, his unrestricted ability to travel in Turkey led to claims that he was working for the Turkish Intelligence Agence Organization (MİT).

Known by the alias of “Ghost Commander,” Topalca had 873 entries and exits at the Turkish-Syrian border between 2011 and 2014, according to police records.

He is known to be a goods smuggler before the outbreak of the Syrian civil war, but later turned into a trafficker of arms, ammunition and fighters.

Topalca was involved in a bomb attack in the border town of Reyhanlı on May 11, 2013, which led to the death of 53 people. 

Two defendants in the case later told the court that they helped Topalca procure vehicles with the thought that they would be used to smuggle goods, accusing him of “ambushing them.” “We were cooperating to bring goods from Reyhanlı. The vehicles used in the bombing had been prepared for smuggling,” Yusuf Nazik and Mehmet Gezer told the court.

Topalca's name was also involved in an ISIS attack that took place in the Central Anatolian province of Niğde in March 2014.

The prosecutors investigating the case at the time said that Topalca facilitated the entry of ISIS militants who killed three people, including two police officers, in Niğde. They said Topalca smuggled Çendrim Ramadani, Benyamin Xu ve Muhammed Sakiri from Syria to Turkey and also helped them to establish connections with other ISIS militants in Istanbul, according to the indictment.

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