A hearing regarding the deadly shooting of Cemil Önal today in a Dutch court revealed that a key suspect was arrested in possession of a car with stolen license plates loaded with weapons only five days before the murder.
Önal, the former financial director for the assassinated Turkish Cypriot casino boss Halil Falyalı, was gunned down on a hotel terrace in the southern town of Rijswijk, Netherlands on 1 May 2025. He had served as a key whistleblower for the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) regarding the alleged multi-million-dollar illegal gambling network by the Falyalı family.
Önal’s murder suspect, 31-year-old Turkish national H.Y., who was not present at the hearing today, had been arrested prior to the murder, on April 25 in the small Dutch town of Barneveld in a car with stolen license plates. The car was seized while H.Y. was released. Only later did the police discover that there were weapons including a Glock pistol and ammunition hidden in the vehicle.
H.Y. stands accused of committing murder alongside a second suspect, who prosecutors allege acted as the primary shooter. Him and the presumed primary shooter were captured by surveillance cameras operating together in close proximity for an hour leading up to the Önal murder. Prosecutors revealed that H.Y. was seen walking near the terrace just 15 minutes before the shooting. Following the murder both suspects fled, tossing their clothes and firearms nearby. Dutch authorities recovered the discarded items, including the murder weapon. According to Dutch prosecutors, the two armed suspects who fled the scene together likely coordinated the murder. H.Y. was apprehended in Germany in April following a European arrest warrant.
Before Cemil Önal was murdered he had warned Dutch authorities his life was in danger due to his knowledge of bribes paid to Turkish and Turkish Cypriot politicians on behalf of an alleged illegal gambling syndicate.
The judge adjourned the case, scheduling the next hearing for 3 November since the police investigation remains ongoing and a complete case file has yet to be finalized.
Turkish authorities had named Önal as the “mastermind” behind the 2022 killing of Halil Falyalı. Önal, a Turkish national, had told journalists he had nothing to do with Falyalı’s murder. The Dutch police arrested Önal in December 2023 on an international warrant from Turkey, and he had been fighting extradition to his homeland. A month after the OCCRP investigation was published in February, Önal told reporters he had been freed from prison pending his extradition decision.
A second key suspect in Önal’s murder, believed to be the gunman, is currently in custody in France on separate weapons charges. Public prosecutors expect him to be extradited to the Netherlands following the conclusion of his trial in France in October.
A third suspect, the former Turkish prosecutor Bayram Bozkurt, who was sitting on the terrace with Önal at the time of his murder, has been provisionally released. It is not yet known whether he will be prosecuted.
No masterminds behind the assassination have been publicly identified, and it remains unclear if investigators have zeroed in on who ordered the hit.
Meanwhile, Önal’s widow and child were represented at court today by a lawyer.