French police have detained a suspect that Dutch authorities say was the gunman in the killing of Turkish whistleblower Cemil Önal, a former finance manager for a slain casino operator who had accused high-level government figures in Turkey and northern Cyprus of taking bribes.
The Dutch Public Prosecution Service said on Monday that police in France detained a 34-year-old Turkish man with no known fixed residence on suspicion of fatally shooting Önal on May 1, 2025, on a hotel terrace in Rijswijk, a town near The Hague. Prosecutors said they suspect the man was the shooter and are seeking his surrender to the Netherlands under a European arrest warrant.
Dutch prosecutors said the suspect is currently being held in France in a separate weapons case and could be transferred to the Netherlands later this year.
Önal, 41, was shot dead in broad daylight in what Dutch police described as a targeted attack.
He was a Turkish national who had worked for years as the financial manager for Halil Falyalı, a casino owner and alleged crime boss in the northern part of Cyprus, which is under Turkish control, and later gave detailed accounts of suspected money laundering and covert payments involving Turkish and Turkish Cypriot political figures.
In interviews with Dutch investigative outlet Follow the Money and the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, Önal said Falyalı’s gambling operations generated tens of millions of dollars a month and that part of this money was moved...
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