Turkey fines Somali president’s son after courier’s death in crash

The son of Somalia’s president has been fined $900 (£710) in Turkey for crashing his car into a motorcycle courier who later died.

An Istanbul court on Tuesday found Mohammed Hassan Sheikh Mohamud guilty of death by negligence.

The car he was driving collided with Yunus Emre Göçer’s motorbike in the city in November last year.

Supporters of Mr Göçer have complained that the fine was too lenient and said that justice had not been served.

Mohamud’s departure from Turkey in December after a police interrogation sparked an outcry among opposition media, the AFP news agency reports.

Critics said the authorities let Mohamud, son of Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, leave the country to maintain relations with its ally.

Turkey then issued an international arrest warrant for Mohamud and he returned to Turkey ahead of the trial.

The court initially sentenced him to two-and-a-half years in prison, but converted this to a fine due – among other things – to the remorse he showed during the trial, the BBC’s Turkish service reports. He has also been banned from driving for six months.

Prosecutors had asked for a six-year sentence.

There were some who were not satisfied with the outcome.

“The life of a motorcycle courier cannot be 27,000 lira ($900)… What happened just now? Is this justice?” Mesut Çeki, president of the Courier Rights Association said outside the courthouse.

Last month, as anger was building over what had happened, Istanbul’s mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu shared grainy CCTV footage of the 30 November incident in a post on X.

A car can be seen appearing to hit the back of a motorcycle at a junction on a busy multi-lane road.

Mr Göçer, 38, was taken to hospital but the father-of-two died from his injuries six days later.

An initial police report had said that Mr Göçer had been at fault and because of this Mohamud was released, according to Mr Göçer’s lawyer quoted by Turkish media outlets at the time.

But a review of the security footage suggested there may have been another explanation, which led to the arrest warrant and the court case.

Turkey and Somalia have enjoyed improving diplomatic relations over the past decade, with Turkey providing infrastructure investment, military training and humanitarian aid.