Wanted prison ‘switched gender’ and dressed as a lady to dodge cops for eight years
A fugitive who transitioned and lived as a woman while using her sister’s ID to evade capture has been arrested in Istanbul after an eight-year manhunt and faces jail in a male prison
Başar was caught in Istanbul(Image: DHA)
A wanted criminal has been caught after spending eight years on the run – and switching genders to dodge cops. Tuğrul Başar was finally arrested by cops who swooped in Istanbul’s busy Kadıköy district after a painstaking surveillance operation.
He was convicted after being found guilty on three counts of stealing while posing as an official in 2010, but gave officers the slip to dodge a three-year jail sentence.
And police uncovered Başar had adopted a completely female identity to evade capture and had presented as a transgender woman while in hiding and lived with an altered feminine appearance, local media reported.
The Fugitive Persons Bureau had been gathering intelligence as the trail went cold(Image: DHA)
His appearance was so different that police could no longer rely on the fugitive’s eight-year-old male mugshots, forcing detectives to switch tactics and mount deeper surveillance focused on an updated lifestyle.
Başar is also said to have moved around Istanbul using heir biological sister’s official Turkish identity card, passing security checkpoints by presenting the document as their own.
But the game was finally up when officers raided the location in Kadıköy and took fingerprints, which revealed the suspect’s true identity and ended the manhunt.
Ornate Boats on the Bosporus, Istanbul, Turkey – stock photo
After the arrest, Başar was taken to the Kadıköy Pier Police Station before being transferred into custody. Police say he will now be sent to prison to serve the original three-year sentence for the 2010 theft convictions.
An independent criminal investigation has also been launched in Istanbul over the alleged fraudulent use of another person’s identity information.
If prosecutors pursue charges linked to identity theft and forgery, Başar could face significant additional prison time on top of the theft sentence. Başar, and she is expected to be sent to a male prison under Turkish law, Karar reported.
Although he is reported to have transitioned socially and physically during eight years in hiding, he never formally changed his name or sex marker in Turkey’s civil registry.
In Turkey, prison placement is determined by the gender marker on a prisoner’s official ID card, rather than appearance or how they identify.
As he has not completed the court-approved legal process needed to update his government ID, the Ministry of Justice still classifies him as male, meaning he must serve his sentence in a male facility.
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