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Arif Kocabıyık’s statement emerges after he was caught under a truck trailer trying to leave Turkey
🇹🇷 Turkey /Crime & Justice

Arif Kocabıyık’s statement emerges after he was caught under a truck trailer trying to leave Turkey

From Cumhuriyet · () Turkish

Translated from Turkish and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

News Official statement In the courts
  • Authorities arrested Arif Kocabıyık and truck driver Muhterem Altıntaş after finding two people hidden under a trailer at Turkey’s Kapıkule border crossing.
  • Kocabıyık told the court he wanted to travel abroad to make travel videos despite an existing travel ban.
  • Prosecutors sent Altıntaş to court on suspicion of migrant smuggling, while an Iranian national found with Kocabıyık was transferred to immigration authorities.

Arif Kocabıyık told a court that he entered the underside of a truck after deciding to leave Turkey and make travel videos abroad, despite a court-ordered travel ban.

Kocabıyık and the truck driver, Muhterem Altıntaş, were arrested after customs officers searched a truck preparing to cross from Kapıkule into Bulgaria. Officials found two people concealed under the trailer and identified them as Kocabıyık and an Iranian national, S.P.S.

Speaking through Turkey’s Audio and Video Information System, Kocabıyık said he knew that judicial-control measures applied to him. He said that after being released in February, he had stopped making street interviews and started publishing travel videos instead.

Anamur

— Arif KocabıyıkKocabıyık gave this answer when journalists asked where he had been trying to flee.

“Now I wanted to shoot travel videos abroad. Because I had a travel ban, I suddenly decided to go abroad based on the word of a person named Muhammet whom I knew. Since I had a travel ban, this person named Muhammet took me to a truck. I got under the truck. When I entered, there was another person there. The truck stopped shortly after it started moving.”

The court ruled that Kocabıyık had violated his travel-ban conditions and ordered his detention under Article 112/1 of Turkey’s Code of Criminal Procedure. Altıntaş was referred to the Edirne Criminal Judgeship of Peace and detained on suspicion of migrant smuggling. Both men were sent to Edirne L-Type Prison. Kocabıyık had been subject to the travel ban in a case concerning alleged insults against the president.

Now I wanted to shoot travel videos abroad. Because I had a travel ban, I suddenly decided to go abroad based on the word of a person named Muhammet whom I knew. Since I had a travel ban, this person named Muhammet took me to a truck. I got under the truck. When I entered, there was another person there. The truck stopped shortly after it started moving.

— Arif KocabıyıkKocabıyık described in his defense how he entered the truck and attempted to travel abroad.
About this summary

Originally published by Cumhuriyet in Turkish. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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