Former lawyer accused of plotting blood feud Turkish gang murder linked to shooting of nine-year-old girl in Hackney can be extradited

A FORMER lawyer accused of helping to plan the gangland murder of the leader of a north London Turkish crime gang in Moldova as part of a blood feud spanning the UK to Turkey can be extradited, a judge has ruled.

Toper Hassan, 58, argued the extradition request could be politically motivated and that he could be killed in a revenge attack if imprisoned in Moldova.

The murder he is alleged to have been involved in planning is allegedly part of a 16-year blood feud with shootings in London and Turkey that saw an innocent nine-year old girl face life-changing injuries after she was caught in the crossfire of a Hackney shooting in May 2024.

Hassan also claimed extradition would breach his human rights due to prison conditions, but Chief Magistrate Judge Paul Goldspring found no evidence to support these claims during an extradition hearing at Westminster Magistrates' Court.

Hassan was fighting against extradition to face a conspiracy to murder charge over the fatal shooting of 41-year-old Izzet Eren (main image), who was shot seven times in the back and head and recognised as the head of the Tottenham Turks organised crime group based in north London.

He was killed after being shot in Moldova's capital Chisinau on 10 July last year.

Kemal Armagan, alleged to be a leading member of the rival Hackney Bombacilar crime gang, is alleged to have fired the shots from a 9mm gun, killing him instantly, while wearing a camouflage outfit and from an electric bike.

Hassan, is alleged to have been pulled into the plot by Armagan to help plan the assassination that happened at a coffee shop.

Judge Goldspring's judgement, published today, said that according to the extradition request: "Between 6 July 2023 and 3 July 2024, (Hassan) visited Moldova four times."

It added: "An unstable 9 mm calibre weapon, ammunition for the weapon, an electric bicycle, camouflage clothes were purchased, and a car was rented. All defendants studied the way of life, the itinerary, the route where the victim, Eren was travelling.

"On 10 July 2024, having received information that Eren would be in the “Coffee Point” in Chișinău... Armagan put on his camouflage outfit, armed himself with the 9 mm calibre gun, got on his electric bicycle and went to Coffee Point.

"After the murder was committed, (Hassan) instructed his partner Irina Nautevici to destroy the surveillance camera that had been installed on the balcony of his apartment... The camera recorded what happened in his apartment, the travel route, and the area where the murder was committed."

Hassan, a dual UK and North Cyprus national, was arrested at Stansted Airport on August 30 last year on a flight from Istanbul.

The blood feud is said to stem back to shootings between the gangs in north London in March 2009.

Armagan has been wanted by the Metropolitan in connection with the March 22 2009 murder of Ahmet Paytak.

Westminster Magistrates' Court was told Eren was killed in revenge for the 2012 murder of the Armagans's brother Ali Armagan.

Hassan's lawyer Peter Caldwell KC had said in written legal arguments before the judgement: "Over the past 16 years members of these families have been locked in a bitter and enduring rivalry in which they have murdered and maimed rival gang members, their families and innocent members of the public."

He told the court the "feud of bloody proportions" had played out "across the streets of London and in other countries".

He said the Met Police has issued Hassan with an Osman (threat to life) Warning and argued his life would be at greater risk if he is extradited to a Moldovan prison, where "it would be an easy matter for the Eren family to exact revenge against" him.

He said: "They have the money, they have the resources, it would be much cheaper to pay off prison guards, to pay off those to do something risky, who are serving a life or long sentence, who have nothing to lose."

Judge Goldspring wrote: "The allegation in the request is a part of a wider pattern of inter gang violence, the context of

which is important background. This background of interlinked shootings and transnational retribution killings provides critical context to the current proceedings. I set out the interrelated cycle of violence to highlight the context in which the challenges are framed and the prism through which the court views the issues, it is not intended, nor should it be read as findings of any fact related

thereto, where a dispute arises as to the facts I have made findings below."

At the time of Eren's murder, the UK was seeking to extradite him in connection with the importation of 156kg of heroin from Iran to Heathrow Airport.

The extradition court heard serious claims about poor standards in prisons in Moldova, including inter-prisoner violence, particularly in the facilities at Leova and Kishener.

The judgement said: "This phenomenon is driven by entrenched criminal hierarchies and tacit cooperation between prisoners and guards. These observations are corroborated by CPT and Ombudsman reports, which also highlight chronic understaffing, inadequate healthcare—such as Leova operating without a medical doctor for three years—and deteriorating infrastructure."

The court also heard that Hassan had signs of "acute stress and early depression, with poor hygiene and low self-esteem."

Judge Goldspring found that there was no evidence of a political basis for his prosecution, and it just stemmed from a police investigation into a very serious crime.

He also took heed of assurances from Moldova that he will be "housed in cells and blocks that are isolated from hierarchical prison structures" and there are "protection mechanisms under Article 206 of the Moldovan Enforcement Code which provide for

immediate and sustained protection in response to any risk" plus "permanent supervision of prisoners, and any interaction with other detainees will be closely monitored."

Judge Goldspring referred the matter to Home Secretary Yvette Cooper who has the final say over whether he will be extradited, but he could appeal her decision to extradite.

Timeline of feuds:

*March 8 2009, Kenan Aydogdu was shot and injured in north London while in the company of Ali Armagan,

brother of Kemal Armagan.

*March 22 2009, a targeted shooting resulted in the murder of Ahmet Paytak, 50, and the injury of his son when four shots were fired into Euro Wines and Food store in Holloway. They were not the intended targets. Ricardo Dwyer and Michael James were convicted of this murder, but Kemal Armagan remains wanted in connection with the offence.

*October 3 2009, Oktay Erbasli was fatally shot while stopped at traffic lights in Tottenham, reportedly by a lone assailant on a high-powered motorcycle.

October 5 2009, 21-year-old Cem Duzgun, affiliated with the Hackney Turks, was shot dead at a social club in Upper Clapton Road. Four men were convicted in relation to his murder. Following these incidents, Kemal Armagan fled the United Kingdom.

*August 15 2010, another attempt was made on the life of Kenan Aydogdu.

*February 1 2012, Ali Armagan, 32, (above) was shot and killed. Kemal Eren, a cousin of Izzet Eren and a leading figure in the Tottenham

Boys gang, was suspected of orchestrating this murder, though he fled to Turkey prior to any trial.

*December 1 2012, Kemal Eren was seriously wounded in a shooting in Elbistan, Turkey.

*December 30 2012, His cousin, Inan Eren, was ambushed outside his home in Enfield and shot three times. He survived but remains physically impaired.

*April 18 2013, Zafer Eren, brother to Izzet Eren, was fatally shot in Southgate. Jamie Marsh-Smith and Samuel Zerei were convicted of this murder.

*2014 Izzet Eren shot and killed one man and injured another in a wheelchair in a revenge shooting in Bodrum, Turkey.

He was later deported to Turkey, where he was wanted for the murder, after serving a UK drugs sentence in 2015, but escaped from prison and smuggled himself back to the UK.

*April 18 2015, Beyzat Eren, was shot and killed in Turkey on the second anniversary of the murder of Zafer Eren.

*October 13 2015 Izzet Eren was stopped by police on a stolen motorbike with another man armed with a pistol and a Skorpion submachine gun in London. The two admitted firearms offences.

*December 11 2015, there was an attempt to free them from a prison van before sentence at Wood Green Crown Court. Jermaine Baker, who was among the prison break team, was fatally shot by an armed police officer. Izzet Eren was jailed for 14 years and transferred to serve the rest of his sentence in Turkey.

*September 26 2019 Izzet Eren escapes from prison in Turkey.

*November 2019, a conspiracy to murder Beytullah Gunduz, allegedly orchestrated by Kemal Eren from Turkey, was intercepted by law enforcement.

*2020, Izzet's younger brother Huseyin Eren was fatally shot in Elbistan, Turkey. Kemal Armagan has also

been arrested in connection with this murder.

*August 21 2020, Gunduz survived another attempted murder in London, having been shot in the neck.

*May 29 2024, a drive-by shooting in Hackney resulted in the injury of the nine-year-old girl and Kenan Aydogdu (again), Nasser Ali, and Mustafa Kiziltan, members of the Hackney Turks. Gunduz was believed to have been the main intended target.

*July 10 2024, Izzet Eren, then the most prominent surviving member of the Tottenham Eren clan, was shot dead in Chisinau, Moldova.