Kürşat Yılmaz


Yakup Kürşat Yılmaz is a Turkish mob boss with links to the ultranationalist Turkish mafia. He was arrested in Bulgaria in July 1998, having escaped from prison in Turkey three times. He had been sentenced to 19 years for arranging the 1995 murder of former Kusadasi Mayor Lütfi Suyolcu. He claimed that he had been told his sentence would be annulled if he killed businessman Halis Toprak, and that he had been given Hepatitis C in Bulgaria in order to prevent him speaking about his connections.
After he escaped to Bulgaria, he was detained in Varna in 2008 and subsequently extradited to Turkey in April 1999.