A former lawyer can be extradited to Moldova to be tried for plotting the murder of a north London gang leader as part of a long-running feud, a judge has ruled.
Izzet Eren – the head of the Tottenham Turks organised crime group – was shot dead in capital Chisinau on 10 July last year.
Toper Hassan, 58, was allegedly recruited by his brother-in-law Kemal Armagan, a leading member of the rival Hackney Turks gang, to help plan and organise logistics for the shooting outside a coffee shop.
Armagan, wearing a camouflage outfit and riding an electric bike, allegedly fired seven shots with a 9mm gun at 41-year-old Eren’s back and head, killing him instantly in a revenge attack as part of a tit-for-tat war between the two gangs.
The shooting came less than two months after a nine-year-old girl was left with a bullet lodged in her brain after a botched assassination attempt of Hackney Turks members sat outside a restaurant in Dalston, east London, in May last year.
Javon Riley, 33, was on Monday found guilty of three counts of attempted murder and causing GBH with intent for helping to organise the shooting, which the Old Bailey heard was ordered by the Tottenham Turks.
Read more: The Turkish gang war behind the shooting
Hassan, a dual UK and North Cyprus national, was arrested at Stansted Airport on 30 August on a flight from Istanbul over the murder of Eren.
At an extradition hearing in June, Westminster Magistrates’ Court heard he was killed as part of a bloody gang feud in retaliation for the 2012 murder of the Armagan’s brother Ali Armagan.
Hassan is alleged to have visited Moldova four times between 6 July 2023 and 3 July 2024 as he and others studied Eren’s way of life, itinerary and the route where he was traveling.
He is alleged to have arranged accommodation for those involved in the plot, instructed his partner to destroy CCTV equipment after the shooting and facilitated the movement and concealment of key participants.
Lawyers for Hassan, who is married to Armagan’s sister, solicitor Reyhan Armagan, said police had issued his client with an Osman, or threat to life, warning, and he feared he would be killed in a revenge attack.
Peter Caldwell KC argued Hassan’s life is at even greater risk if he is extradited to a Moldovan prison, where “it would be an easy matter for the Eren family to exact revenge against” him.
“They have the money, they have the resources, it would be much cheaper to pay off prison guards, to pay off those to do something risky, who are serving a life or long sentence, who have nothing to lose,” he said.
He said Hassan should not be extradited because he would be prejudiced at trial for political reasons and the “risk of reprisals” would breach his human rights.
Follow our channel and never miss an update
But in a judgment, chief magistrate Paul Goldspring said there were no bars to extradition and sent the case to Home Secretary Yvette Cooper for a decision on whether he should be extradited.
He said Hassan is alleged to have played a “central role” in the planning and logistics of the murder, which persecutors say “formed part of a violent feud between rival Turkish-Kurdish organised crime groups” and was linked to a “series of reprisal shootings and murders in the UK, Turkey and mainland Europe”.
Mr Goldspring said Hassan will remain in custody pending Ms Cooper’s decision, which can be appealed, along with his judgment, at the High Court.
Turkish Police have previously confirmed to Sky News that Armagan was arrested in March.
Be the first to get Breaking News
Install the Sky News app for free
Jermaine Baker, 28, was shot dead by police in a failed plot to free Eren from a security van near Wood Green Crown Court in 2015.
Eren, a Turkish citizen, was jailed for firearms offences and transferred to Turkey to serve the remainder of his sentence in August 2019, but escaped a month later in September.
He was arrested in Moldova in May 2022 but was released on bail pending an asylum decision.
