Abdullah Baybaşin

Born Abdullah Baybaşin
Nationality Turkish
Conviction(s) []

In 2004 Abdullah Baybaşin was accused of being at the helm of a £25 billion heroin empire based in North London. He had been convicted of drug charges in 2006 involving up to 5.5 lb (2.5 kg) of heroin and sentenced to 22 years in prison .

However, the Court of Appeal in 2010 ordered a retrial on the drugs charge after deeming that the judge’s summing up of the evidence at the trial was unfair.

On 22 October 2010, A judge at Woolwich Crown Court in London ordered the retrial jury to find Baybasin not guilty because the lack of prosecution evidence meant that a conviction would be unsafe. Judge Charles Byers said that there was no direct evidence and very little circumstantial evidence of Baybasin's involvement in a conspiracy to supply 5 lb (2.3 kg) of heroin. (http://www.myfoxtwincities.com/dpps/news/britains-heroin-godfather-freed-after-smuggling-retrial-collapses-dpgonc-20101022-bb_10242016)

His family members claimed that Abdullah Baybaşin is a victim of injustice; he was wrongly accused by the British Police. They alleged that he was convicted at the first trial despite the lack of any evidence against him, except the statement of a convicted felon, that turned out to be untruthful, unreliable and unsafe. It was also claimed that the British Press declared him quilty on the basis of hearsay without carrying out any kind of investigation into the accusations against him. (https://publish.istanbul.indymedia.org/news/2010/10/269229.php)

On 8 November 2010, Abdullah Baybasin was awarded £20,000 in damages by the Prison Services. The Ministry of Justice has accepted that Abdullah Baybasin who uses a wheelchair, suffered from degrading treatment and discrimination on account of his disability while he was in Belmarsh jail in London. On hearing the decision of the Ministry he said that " The treatment I received at HMP Belmarsh was very degrading and at times I struggled to cope. I thought I would die in prison, and often thought things would never get better," (http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2010/nov/08/disabled-prisoner-20000-compensation-belmarsh)

His brother Hüseyin is serving a life sentence in the Netherlands on drug-related charges. Both brothers grew up in Lice, Diyarbakır in the Southeastern Anatolia Region, Turkey close to the Syrian border.

References