Detained doctor Nurettin Demirkol repeatedly says: “I don’t remember, I don’t know”

Doctor Nurettin Demirkol answered repeated questions about the death of Arif Ahmet Denizolgun with the same phrase: “Ten years have passed. I don’t remember, I don’t know.” He was detained on suspicion of perjury after investigators identified contradictions in his testimony.

Demirkol had previously testified as a witness in the investigation into Denizolgun, a former transport minister and former leader of the Süleymancı movement. In his first statement on August 26, he said he did not know who had called medical and police teams. He also said he was not Denizolgun’s personal doctor and did not consider the death suspicious.

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Ten years have passed. I don’t remember, I don’t know.

An emergency-call report, however, indicated that the call came from a phone used by Demirkol. The caller introduced himself as the family doctor and said the death was suspicious. Asked about the discrepancy, Demirkol said he could not remember whether he had made the call or someone else had used his phone, which he had left unattended.

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I don’t remember whether I made the call or someone else did. I had left my phone unattended. Someone else may have called from my phone.

The prosecutor also questioned his statement that he was not the deceased’s personal doctor. Demirkol said he had examined Denizolgun two or three times, but added that he did not know how someone becomes a family doctor.

Investigators also said location data from his first statement did not match telecommunications records. Demirkol had said he was at his residence in Kısıklı on the day in question. Prosecutors told him that no cell-site record placed him in Kısıklı between 6:12 p.m. on September 6, 2016, and 5:46 p.m. on September 8.

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I examined the deceased two or three times. But I do not know how someone becomes a family doctor.