A Turkish court sentenced gangster Mustafa Söylemez to two life sentences for the murder of casino kingpin Halil Falyalı. [Image: Shutterstock.com]

Life times two

The Istanbul 36th High Criminal Court has sentenced Turkish mobster Mustafa Söylemez to two life sentences for the 2022 murder of casino kingpin Halil Falyalı in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC).

Journalist and filmmaker Veysi Dündar took to X Saturday to share the court’s verdict:

Söylemez is a member of the Söylemez Kardeşler organized crime organization and one of seven defendants prosecutors accused of murdering Fayali and his driver, Murat Demirtaş.  

The Istanbul court also sentenced Abdurrahim Çelik, Cengiz Şener, and Ender Yıldız each to 25 years in prison for the charges of “assisting” premeditated murder and “membership in a criminal organization.”

Mustafa Söylemez’s double life sentence included the charge of “forming and leading a criminal organization.” The court, however, acquitted his brother Mehmet Faysal Söylemez, also an alleged gangster, of all crimes and released him from custody.

Death of notorious kingpin

According to Haber Turk, Mustafa Söylemez was one of the defendants attending the hearing remotely from prison.

Falyalı and his driver died in a hail of automatic gunfire

Söylemez was one of the men with Kalashnikovs that ambushed the motorcade transporting the casino mogul Falyalı as it passed through the TRNC village of Çatalköy in February 2022. Both Falyalı and his driver died in a hail of automatic gunfire witnessed by Falyalı’s wife and children, who were in a different vehicle and escaped without injury.

Besides owning the five-star Les Ambassadeurs Hotel & Casino in the TRNC, Falyalı was also a leading figure in the region’s online gambling industry.

US authorities had Falyalı under investigation since 2015 for money laundering and involvement in a drug trafficking ring that flooded the United Kingdom with heroin, while also accusing him of masterminding an illegal £40m ($50.8m) betting scheme.

In 2016, despite the Department of Justice charging Falyalı with laundering money from narcotics sales within the US, neither government could bring him to justice because the UK and US had no extradition treaty with the TRNC.

Links to government

While the Istanbul court did not establish the motive behind Falyalı’s murder, prior to his slaying convicted Turkish mafia boss Sedat Peker named him as the bookkeeper for an international cocaine trafficking ring with links to leading Turkish politicians.

In 2004, Turkey issued a warrant for the arrests of Mustafa Söylemez and his brother, who fled to Iraq and later Azerbaijan. The pair returned to Turkey shortly before Falyalı’s murder.