Lazım Esmaeili


Lazım Esmaeili was a Kurdish Iranian spy operating in Turkey, who was found tortured and shot dead by unknown persons in Istanbul.

Background

Esmaelli was born 1945 in Urmia in Iran as a son of Selim.
He moved to Turkey and received a work permit from the Ministry of Interior's General Directorate of Security for the period between May 20, 1991 and September 20, 1992. As of September 1991, he was the partner of the Beyazıt Foreign Trade Co. in Istanbul, where he worked as director. On September 11, 1993, he received a residence permit valid for two years.

Death

On January 15, 1995, he and his friend Askar Simitko were abducted when they left the casino of Polat Renaissance Hotel in Yeşilköy, Istanbul at local time 03:45. On January 28, 1995, villagers found the corpses of the two in Kerev Creek, Silivri, about far from Istanbul. They were tortured, ears cut and shot multiple times. According to the "Second MIT Report" authored by Mehmet Eymür, the incident's motive was not political but drug trafficking in connection with the Susurluk scandal gang. Eymür later said that Esmaeili and Simitko had been killed by a team led by Abdullah Çatlı.