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A Turkish whistleblower who alleged a vast money-laundering and bribery scheme linking northern Cyprus to President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s inner circle has been gunned down in the Netherlands in what authorities suspect was a targeted assassination.
The victim, 41-year-old Cemil Önal, was shot at close range on a hotel terrace in Rijswijk, a suburb of The Hague, on Thursday evening.
Dutch police said a Turkish national was killed by an assailant who approached without a mask, fired multiple shots and fled, leaving Önal mortally wounded at the scene.
They have yet to officially confirm Önal’s identity, but sources in touch with Önal’s loved ones told Turkish Minute that the 41-year-old Turkish man killed in the Netherlands was indeed Cemil Önal.
Media in the Netherlands, Cyprus and Turkey also widely reported that Önal — a former financial advisor to slain northern Cypriot casino magnate Halil Falyalı — was the man assassinated in Rijswijk.
Witnesses described a brazen attack in daylight: “A man dressed in black” walked up to the victim on the hotel’s outdoor terrace and opened fire at point-blank range, one source told Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf, adding that an accomplice appeared to be waiting nearby.
An eyewitness quoted by local media said they heard three gunshots and then saw the gunman run off into a wooded area, a pistol still visible in his belt. Dutch authorities have assigned a team of 20 detectives to the case, treating the killing as an...
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