Why did the Kurtlar Vadisi Pusu screenwriters testify in the Kozinoğlu investigation?

14 September 2026 — The three screenwriters of Kurtlar Vadisi Pusu (Valley of the Wolves: Ambush), Raci Şaşmaz, Bahadır Özdener and Cüneyt Aysan, arrived at Silivri Courthouse around midday on 14 September to testify in the reopened investigation into the 2011 death of former Turkish intelligence (MİT) officer Kaşif Kozinoğlu. According to reports based on Anadolu Agency and a Habertürk update the same evening, they were heard as "persons with knowledge" and left after about two hours. No statement to the press was reported, and because the file is under a confidentiality order the content of their testimony has not been disclosed. The writers are not suspects: prosecutors called them to clarify the overlap in time between two episodes broadcast in November and December 2011 and Kozinoğlu's death.

Who was Kaşif Kozinoğlu?

According to Turkish Wikipedia he was born in Trabzon in 1955, joined MİT after retiring from the army in 1995 and served in Syria, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Afghanistan; in September 2010 he became Chief Adviser for the Asia Region, known inside the agency as "Hayalet" (the Ghost). On 10 March 2011 he was arrested in the Ergenekon investigation, flown from Afghanistan to Turkey and placed in Silivri Prison. According to the official record, on 12 November 2011, in the eighth month of his detention, he fell ill in Silivri No. 1 L-Type Closed Prison and was found dead on arrival at Silivri State Hospital; Wikipedia gives 13 November. The recorded cause was a heart attack; his son said his father had no known heart condition and called the death suspicious. The first investigation was closed on 10 April 2012 with a decision not to prosecute.

Why was the file reopened after 15 years?

The Justice Ministry's Department for the Investigation of Unsolved Crimes re-examined the file; on 26 August 2026 the Silivri Criminal Court of Peace lifted the non-prosecution decision and the investigation resumed, handled by a dedicated team under a confidentiality order according to Hürriyet. Justice Minister Akın Gürlek summarised the process on NSosyal: proceedings were opened against 11 prison staff on duty at the time, 10 were detained and one was located abroad as a FETÖ fugitive; in the first round one person was remanded and seven released under judicial control. Nine more people were then detained, a reporter, a camera operator and seven health workers; according to Sözcü on 12 September, three of them were remanded and six released under judicial control. The latest tally, repeated by Habertürk on 14 September: four suspects in custody, thirteen under judicial control.

How did the series enter the investigation?

According to Türkiye Gazetesi and Onedio, prosecutors are examining the similarities between Kozinoğlu's last days in prison and the Kurtlar Vadisi Pusu episodes broadcast at the time. In episode 136, aired on 10 November 2011, a character named "Kazım Kaşifoğlu" is held in a cell, beaten and threatened; another character tells him, "I am your angel of death, Kaşifoğlu, I will kill you." Kozinoğlu died two days after the broadcast. In episode 139, aired on 8 December 2011, the character "Kara" kills Kaşifoğlu by injecting air into his arm with a syringe. According to Euronews, the prosecutors' question is precise: what information were the writers relying on? There is no allegation in the file that anyone on the production committed a crime. One distinction matters: Kurtlar Vadisi (Valley of the Wolves), broadcast from 2003 to 2005, and Kurtlar Vadisi Pusu, which ran from 2007 to 2016, are separate productions; the episodes under examination belong to Pusu.

The grave was opened

What was found? The exhumation reported by Serbestiyet on 9 September was carried out. According to A Haber on 13 September, a five-member team of three forensic pathologists, a chemist and an autopsy technician worked at Ümraniye Kocatepe Cemetery under a prosecutor's supervision. After 15 years the body was intact, the shroud had not decayed and soft tissue was recovered alongside the bones. Samples of organs, soft tissue, bone, shroud and grave soil went to the 1st Specialisation Board of the Council of Forensic Medicine. Forensic expert Prof. Dr. Nevzat Alkan called the soft tissue "very valuable" and said any substance that entered the body "can readily be detected in soft tissue, that is, in the internal organs." According to Habertürk, the aim is to establish the exact cause of death and whether a third party was involved.

What allegations are in the file?

According to Serbestiyet, the investigation is also looking into claims that different medications were administered before Kozinoğlu's death and into the vitamin supplements he had requested. The same report says the file contains allegations that a guard turned up a radio to drown out an alarm and that the emergency medical team was on a break at the time. These are allegations in the file, not findings or rulings. The seven health workers among the detained indicate that prosecutors are examining the chain of medical response that night.

The line between fiction and reality

Kurtlar Vadisi has been debated since 2003 for dramatising current political and intelligence affairs under fictional names; the question viewers have asked for years, "did the script follow reality or reality the script?", is now being asked by a prosecutor's office. Legally the distinction matters: a series resembling a real event is not in itself a crime, and the prosecutors do not claim it is; they only want to know what information the scenes in episodes 136 and 139 were written on. The statements given on 14 September are meant to fill that gap; they are in the file but have not been disclosed.

What happens next?

The forensic board's report will clarify the cause of death, and whether an indictment follows depends on it. As of 14 September 2026, known: the writers have testified, the grave has been opened, four people are in custody. Unknown: the content of the statements, the forensic result, and any public statement from the production company Pana Film. This page relies only on public news sources, keeps allegation and finding apart, and will be updated as developments come in.