The 32-year-old MIT agent, Mehmet Fatih Sayin, has been found dead in a hotel room in Antalya, as of this morning. The MIT agent, whose full name has been withheld in accordance with German law, was previously sentenced to 5 years in prison after being caught attempting to assassinate Remzi Kartal and Yuksel Koc.
German prosecutors say that the Turkish man has worked for the Turkish intelligence service since 2013: between September 2015 and his arrest in December 2016, his mission was allegedly to spy on the Kurdish community in Germany, focusing on Kurds based in Bremen, posing as a reporter for a Kurdish TV broadcaster.
Last November, it had come to light that MİT was planning assassinations of Kongra-Gel Co-chair Remzi Kartal and European Kurdish Democratic Societies Congress (KCD-E) Co-chair Yüksel Koç. In connection with this plan, MİT agent Mehmet Fatih Sayan was arrested by the German police in Hamburg on December 15, 2016.
The Turkish MIT agency allegedly paid the man 30,000 euros ($35,800) for his services. Mehmet Fatih Sayin used his cover as a reporter to conduct three interviews with Yuksel Koc. Koc said that the agent was informing on his “every move” in an interview conducted by DW. He also reported receiving death threats via text messages, including one that said: “You will always be a target for us until you are dead.”
GERMANY CASE
According to Germany’s public broadcasters NDR and WDR, the scheme was discovered when a woman from a “close personal circle” of the alleged spy decided to speak up. She reportedly addressed a Kurdish newspaper, providing documents, photos and logs connected to the case.
In summer 2016, the woman said she discovered handwritten notes in Fatih’s travel bag by chance. Among them were notes about the daily and professional life of Yüksel Koç in Bremen. She photographed the notes and found photos that she saved to a USB stick. She then confronted Fatih whereupon he admitted to working for MIT and suggested that she too begin working for the intelligence service. The woman said he proposed that she begin spying on the wives of Kurdish functionaries and told her she would make 5,000 euros per month. The woman declined the offer.
She later provided German authorities with the same information. The records indicate an assassination conspiracy that allegedly involves two other Turkish agents. The woman is now under police protection.
Mehmet Fatih S. allegedly kept in touch with his handlers in Turkey via email and also travelled there twice in 2016. “After we exposed this person, he discussed things with MİT and returned from Ukraine to turn himself in. MİT determined the defence strategy he will use in the case,” said Yucel Koc.
While information regarding the case is not open to the public, Sayan himself mentioned MIT’s plan to assassinate Koç and Kongra-Gel Co-chair Remzi Kartal during his interrogation. He also said that MIT was planning an attack against Cem Özdemir, the national co-chair of the Green Party.
THE COVER
MIT came up with the perfect cover: Fatih got a job with the Kurdish broadcaster Denge TV and was even given his own show in 2014. As a result, his name became known among Kurds, which gave him access to high-ranking functionaries.
Starting in 2014, the presumed journalist travelled several times to Germany and established contact with Koç, who at the time was still co-chair of the Kurdish Democratic Societies Congress in Germany. For one extended interview, Fatih even visited Koç at his home in Bremen.
German prosecutors have apparently been unable to find out who Fatih’s MIT case officers were. During his interrogation, he claimed that he could only remember two first names: Kemal and Ahmed. When in Germany, he received his orders via an email address that bore the name of a supposed cousin of his. When he wanted to indicate that he had new material, he would write that he was bringing “chocolate” along on his next visit.
The woman testified that Fatih used two laptops and two external hard drives that nobody was allowed to touch. In September 2015, he took her to a café in Ankara where the waiter greeted him by name and didn’t bring him a bill. Fatih S. later said that it was one of the places where he often met with his case officer.
The stamps in Fatihs passport revealed that he travelled to Poland, Romania and Ukraine during that period.
SUSPICIOUS DEATH
Mehmet Fatih Sayin has allegedly been found dead in a hotel room in Antalya this morning, while any other information regarding the case has been swept under the carpet. The family of the agent have also disclosed that they were offered hush-money, to conceal details of the death.
