On Monday, June 22, the first session of the trial of a number of celebrities accused in the case of the murder of young Turkish footballer Kobilai Kaan Kondakci began in Turkish courts, an incident that sparked a huge shock and a wide controversy within the sports and media circles in Turkey given the identity of those involved and the tragic nature of the incident.

During the opening session, the Turkish Public Prosecution demanded that the young singer Alina Kalicioglu and her boyfriend, businessman Aladdin Katayevcioglu, be sentenced to life in prison, after they were formally charged with incitement to murder and intentional murder.

The court also asked for a sentence of up to five years in prison against the well-known popular singer Ezzat Yildezhan on charges of covering up and sheltering a fugitive defendant from justice.

The courtroom witnessed the presence of the late player's family, who demanded just retribution, in addition to the presence of rapper Wahab Jean Bey, who was with the victim and an eyewitness to the last moments of the incident last March, where the family, through its lawyer, made statements to the local media in which they confirmed that the blood of their son, who was a victim of the magnanimity of the intervention, will not be in vain.

The circumstances of the crime and the details of the bloody night

The details of the tragic incident date back to March of this year, when the young footballer Kobilai Kondakçi was with his friend the rapper in a public place, and there happened to be a sharp personal dispute and a verbal altercation between the disputing parties, including the accused celebrities, which prompted him to intervene immediately out of the motive of reconciliation and end the dispute before things rapidly developed into a random shooting that killed him.

The investigations of the Turkish security services and the statements of the Public Prosecution, supported by the recordings of surveillance cameras in the vicinity of the incident, revealed that the businessman Aladdin Katayevcioglu (a friend of the singer Alina) was the main suspect who fired directly during the altercation, while the investigations showed that the physical and verbal incitement by the singer Kaleigioglu was the motive behind the escalation of the situation and the use of firearms in the face of those present.

The field reports of the Istanbul Security Directorate and the investigation reports indicated that the popular singer Ezzat Yildezhan helped the main accused to hide from view after committing the crime, as he provided him with a secret shelter for several days before the anti-crime forces were able to locate him and arrest all parties to the case, which quickly turned into a public opinion issue on the Turkish street.

Widespread condemnations, sports solidarity and human rights

The crime sparked a wave of widespread condemnation by Turkish sports clubs and the local football federation, where several sports bodies issued statements of condolence and solidarity demanding the need to achieve complete justice for the young player, who was not a party to any conflict, but paid with his life for his magnanimity and his attempt to resolve the conflict peacefully, amid a great societal condemnation of the spread of unlicensed weapons among some celebrities and businessmen.

Human rights organizations and Turkish media outlets that have followed the circumstances of the case from the first moments have confirmed that the trial of these stars puts the Turkish judiciary in front of a real test to affirm the rule of law over everyone without discrimination between a celebrity and an ordinary citizen, especially with the escalation of popular demands to impose the maximum penalties against the instigators and implementers to deter manifestations of armed violence in society.