Somali president’s son flees Turkey days after fatal accident in İstanbul

The son of the Somali president, accused of manslaughter for knocking down and killing a courier in Istanbul, has fled and is the subject of an international arrest warrant, Turkish media reported on Saturday.

The case, denounced in particular by the mayor of Istanbul Ekrem Imamoglu, a declared opponent of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, arouses a lot of emotion because the suspect, Mohammed Hassan Cheikh Mohamoud, had been released without judicial control after an initial police report, indicates in particular the major daily Cumhuriyet.

“The suspect left Turkey with his hands free” Mr. Imamoglu was indignant on Saturday on the social network in his own country.

According to the police report cited by Haber television, the son of President Hassan Cheikh Mohamoud hit a motorcycle courier in broad daylight, on November 30.

Thrown violently onto the road, the victim, Yunus Emre Göcer, father of two children, died six days later in hospital.

The public prosecutor issued an arrest warrant against the driver: "But when the police went to the suspect's home on Friday, he had been missing since December 2 ," reports Haber.

“An international arrest warrant was therefore issued against him (Friday) December 8, 2023” by the Istanbul Attorney General’s Office, adds the channel.

The courier's lawyer, Iyaz Cimen, cited by Cumhuriyet, denounced the first traffic police report, which blamed the victim's "recklessness" for the accident.

“A second expert report with video recordings showed that the driver of the vehicle was 100% responsible,” he adds, fearing, however, that the latter will “never be arrested. ”

For the past ten years, Turkey has maintained close relations with Somalia, a "brother country" of 17 million predominantly Muslim inhabitants in the Horn of Africa, of which it is the main economic partner, particularly in the areas of construction, education, health, and military cooperation.