Newsletters
Turkish police are investigating the death of a 20-year-old Chechen student whose body was discovered in a forest in Istanbul's Sariyer district with a plastic bag over his head and a handwritten note warning his mother not to believe accusations against him.
The body of Usman Amriev, a Russian citizen of Chechen ethnicity, was found Monday morning by a passerby in the Bahcekoy area. Police cordoned off the scene after the discovery around 9:30 a.m.
A citizen walking through the forested area noticed a motionless person and immediately contacted authorities. Health and police teams were dispatched to the scene, where they established a security perimeter around the area.
Medical teams confirmed that the person had died. Crime scene investigation teams found the body of what appeared to be a man in his mid-twenties with a plastic bag over his head, secured with tape. Next to the body were duct tape, a handwritten note in Russian, and a black shoulder bag containing a cell phone, an Istanbul transit card, cash and personal items.
The victim was initially believed to have died from suffocation. Following examination by prosecutors, the body was transferred to the Forensic Medicine Institute morgue for autopsy.
Police used the dormitory access card found in the victim's bag to trace his residence and identify him as Usman Amriev. The note found clutched in his hand had been printed from a computer, investigators determined.
The note contained a message to his mother: "My dear mother, I hope these words never reach you. Because I will be slandered, do not believe them. If this letter has reached you, it means I am dead. I swear I only sought justice, but it all came to nothing. I will not go down in history as one of the scholars. They will not write me in books, but everyone will receive their punishment. I beg you, do not let them bury me as a traitor."
The note also included verse 153 from the Quran's Al-Baqarah chapter, written in Arabic.
Police investigations revealed that Amriev had arrived in Türkiye approximately three years ago for educational purposes. He initially enrolled at a state university in Kutahya, where he studied for half a semester before transferring to Istanbul.
In Istanbul, he enrolled at a private university in the Kagithane district and was living in a private dormitory in Sisli. Investigators working backward from his transit records and security footage were able to piece together his educational journey and living arrangements.
Security camera footage and transit card records revealed Amriev's movements on his final day. Hours before his death, he visited a stationery shop in Mecidiyekoy, emerging with a paper in his hand. He then returned to his dormitory in Sisli before making his way to the Mecidiyekoy metro station.
From Mecidiyekoy, he took the metro to Haciosman station, where he boarded a municipal bus to Bahcekoy. Security footage shows him disembarking in Bahcekoy and beginning to walk on foot before disappearing from view in the direction where his body would later be discovered.
A cousin living abroad told investigators that Amriev had last mentioned going to withdraw money from a bank and had not been heard from since that communication.
Police continue to examine all evidence and are investigating whether the death was suicide or homicide. The investigation includes reviewing additional security footage from the area and examining the circumstances that led Amriev to the remote forested location where he was found.
The case has drawn attention due to the mysterious circumstances surrounding the death and the cryptic nature of the note found with the body. Authorities have not released additional details about potential motives or circumstances that may have led to the incident.
5 min read
