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UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Somalia’s president says his son didn’t flee Turkey after he was concerned in a deadly freeway crash in Istanbul, and provides that he has suggested his son to return and current himself to court docket, which has issued an arrest warrant.
President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud mentioned in an interview with The Related Press that his 40-year-old son, who’s a health care provider, stayed on the scene of the crash and remained in Istanbul for a number of days afterward.
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“It was an accident. He didn’t run away, and he employed a lawyer for this goal,” the president mentioned. “And there was no arrest warrant. … So, he has a enterprise and he got here in a foreign country.”
Yunus Emre Gocer, a 38-year-old motorbike courier, died in a hospital Dec. 6, six days after he was hit by a automobile pushed by the president’s son, Mohammed Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, on a busy freeway in Istanbul.
Turkish authorities ordered president’s son arrested and barred him from touring overseas following the motorcyclist’s loss of life, however studies mentioned the youthful Mohamud had already left Turkey by the point the warrant was issued.
“He nonetheless is linked to the nation, and I’m speaking to him to return and presenting himself to the court docket,” the president mentioned. However his son is an grownup and “the choice is his — however I’m giving that recommendation,” he added.
The president prolonged his sympathy to Gocer’s household.
“I wish to take this chance to ship my condolences to the household, which I don’t know how you can contact,” he mentioned in Tuesday’s interview. “We share with them the grief of their loss. We’re sorry for his or her loss.”
On Sunday, dozens of individuals, together with motorbike courier teams, staged an illustration in Istanbul demanding that the son face trial for Gocer’s loss of life.
Ekrem Imamoglu, the mayor of Istanbul and a distinguished opposition politician, tweeted a safety digicam video of the crash. He claimed the “suspect left Turkey along with his fingers free” and accused the federal government of “being too weak to defend the rights of its personal residents.”
Responding to the stress, Justice Minister Yilmaz Tunc mentioned with out elaborating that “worldwide procedures” had been initiated regarding the crash.
“No matter their title, everyone seems to be equal earlier than the legislation and your complete course of for the seize of the suspect — together with the worldwide process — is being carried out meticulously,” Tunc tweeted Sunday.
Individually, Tunc mentioned that an investigation was additionally launched into law enforcement officials who performed an preliminary investigation into the collision and allegedly allowed Mohamud to go free.
On Monday, a Somali diplomat in Turkey informed The Related Pressthat the automobile pushed by the president’s son is owned by the Somali Embassy. The president’s household travels with diplomatic passports and had beforehand lived in Turkey, mentioned the official, who agreed to debate the case provided that not quoted by identify.
Turkey has constructed shut ties with Somalia since 2011, when President Recep Tayyip Erdogan — then prime minister — visited the East African nation in a present of assist as Somalis suffereed from extreme drought. Turkey has offered humanitarian support, constructed infrastructure and opened a army base in Somalia the place it has skilled officers and police.
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“I’ll do every thing that I can to ensure that my son respects Turkish legislation and justice legislation, and stands in entrance of the courts in Turkey,” Somalia’s president mentioned within the interview at U.N. headquarters, the place he offered a plan for his authorities to take over safety from African Union troops and proceed its combat in opposition to al-Shabab militants.
“Turkey is a brotherly nation,” Mohamud mentioned. “We respect the legal guidelines and the justice and the judicial system. As a president of Somalia, I’ll by no means enable anyone to violate this nation’s judicial system.”
