Rabia Çetin
The first hearing in the trial over the killing of journalist and video activist Hakan Tosun, who was attacked in Istanbul’s Esenyurt district and died days later, will be held on May 6 at 2 p.m. at the Bakırköy 17th High Criminal Court. The detained defendants, Abdurrahman Murat, 19, and Adnan Şahin, 25, are being tried on charges of intentional killing.
Tosun was assaulted late at night on Oct. 10, 2025, in a street in Esenyurt, a densely populated district on Istanbul’s European side. Security footage shows a coordinated attack: at 12:17 a.m., individuals arriving by motorcycle approached Tosun, and one of them kicked him in the head. About three to four minutes later, the same individuals returned and struck him again, causing him to collapse.
Tosun was found unconscious by the roadside and taken to hospital. His sister, Öznur Tosun, said the family was not informed for 27 hours after he was hospitalized. He was later identified as being treated at Çam and Sakura State Hospital, one of Istanbul’s largest medical facilities, where he died in intensive care on Oct. 13.
In the initial phase of the investigation, police detained Murat and Şahin on charges of intentional injury. A shop owner was also taken into custody over allegations that he obtained footage from the scene through a suspect’s father.
Lawyers for the family say that footage from several cameras directly overlooking the scene was not collected, some existing recordings were cropped, and others disappeared. They also reported that parts of the footage were leaked to journalists and that reporters investigating the incident were threatened. In addition, they said a third individual present at the scene was excluded from the investigation.
Following Tosun’s death, opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) lawmaker Zeynel Emre submitted a parliamentary question on Oct. 16, 2025, to then-Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya, asking whether a possible link between the attack and Tosun’s journalistic work had been examined.
Family lawyers allege serious negligence and misdirection from the outset of the investigation. They claim police reviewed camera footage together with relatives of the suspects; the suspects were summoned by phone for statements rather than apprehended discreetly; their phones were not seized; their homes were not searched; and their call data records were not examined.
They also argue that critical evidence was lost because some footage was not collected in time, and may even have been destroyed by relatives of the attackers. Individuals whose accounts contradict video evidence were reportedly included in the case file as witnesses.
The lawyers objected to the classification of a third individual, identified as Y.Ö., as a witness, demanding that he be tried for intentional killing. Criminal complaints were filed against the Esenyurt Mevlana Police Station for abuse of office and neglect of duty, and against Y.Ö. for participation in intentional killing.
An initial indictment prepared in February had sought charges of aggravated injury resulting in death and invoked provisions of unjust provocation.
After objections from the lawyers, a new indictment prepared by the Bakırköy Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office charged Murat and Şahin with intentional killing, seeking separate life sentences. The 11-page indictment, accepted by the Bakırköy 17th High Criminal Court, states that the defendants acted “in unity of thought and action” and with “intent to kill.”
According to the prosecution’s analysis of the footage, Murat kicked Tosun multiple times, targeting his head, and the assault showed continuity. Şahin also kicked Tosun and continued beating him while he was on the ground. Prosecutors described the acts as “controlled and deliberate violence.”
The indictment records Tosun’s cause of death as internal bleeding due to head trauma, brain hemorrhage, and destruction of brain tissue. The defendants’ defense statements were assessed as attempts to evade responsibility.
The motorcycle driver who fled the scene with the perpetrators is listed as a witness in the indictment, with no evaluation made regarding his role in the killing. A separate investigation has been launched into this individual following a criminal complaint by the lawyers.
With the indictment accepted, the first hearing will take place on May 6. The family and their lawyers have called on the public to attend. A request for the hearing to be held in a larger courtroom was denied.
Hakan Tosun, born in Istanbul in 1975, began working in the media sector in the 1990s. In recent years, he worked as an independent video activist and documentary filmmaker, documenting environmental protests and urban rights struggles in Turkey.
