Mannheimer Morgen

5th September 1992, page 1

Did the Jeweller Send the Killer?
Murder Trial in Istanbul / New Leads in Düe Case

By Martin Tangl of our editorial staff

Was it jeweller René Düe himself who arranged the robbery at his Hanover jewellery business in October 1981? More than ten years on, a murder trial in Istanbul is shedding new light on the spectacular case.

In court, the accused Yildozsoy Aydin has described the 1981 robbery in detail and testified that Düe had hired him to carry out the murder of his then accomplice, Avan Nevzat, because he was threatening to talk.

He then murdered his friend by strangling him in an Istanbul hotel on March 20th 1991.

As early as 1981, suspicions were raised that the two Turks had carried out the robbery on Düe’s orders. However the robbery was never solved. Düe was acquitted in 1989 due to lack of evidence.

The missing jewellery, with a value of 12 million Deutschmarks has never been found.

Legal proceedings are now being instituted against Aydin.

Due to inconsistencies in the accused’s evidence, the court decided at the end of last week to first establish the reliability of his evidence.

Mannheimer Morgen, 5th February 1992, page 10

Was the Killer Working for Düe?

Hanover Jeweller Faces New Accusations from Turkey

By editorial staff reporter Martin Tangl

Is the Düe case about to take a surprising twist? Two men robbed his premises on the 31st of October 1981. Now, in an Istanbul court, suspect Yildiszoy Aydin (34) has testified that in March of 1991 he murdered his then accomplice Avan Nevzat (27) on the orders of Düe.

This information has been passed on to us from Turkey.
The two Turks, it is claimed, robbed the jewellery business of the now 45-year-old René Düe on Düe’s own orders. The robbery was never solved.

However, last year, with Nevzat threatening to blow the whistle, the killer knocked him to the floor in an Istanbul hotel, strangled him and sewed his lips together.

For this service Düe paid him 225,00 Deutschmarks, Aydin has claimed in the Istanbul court where he is now standing trial.

“While one Turk is lying in his grave and the other is serving a prison sentence, the German jeweller is walking free” said the murder victim’s lawyer Aydin Coser in Istanbul.

The Düe case hit the headlines in the 1980’s. The jeweller was detained for a total of 870 days because he was suspected of having arranged the robbery himself. He was acquitted by the Brunswick district court in March 1989.

The missing jewellery, with a value of 12 million Deutschmarks has never been found.

The matter continues to occupy the courts however. The Mannheimer Insurance Company, with whom Düe was insured, is refusing to pay out.

At that time the company had engaged the services of private detective Werner Mauss who was much in demand with both state and federal police departments.

An acquittal due to lack of evidence they argued, and indeed continue to do so, is no proof of innocence.

Events at the murder trial in Istanbul may now show the Mannheimer company’s reluctance to have been justified. Aydin and Nevzat had already been arrested as suspects following the robbery in 1981.

The public prosecutor’s office however lacked sufficient evidence, though, apparently, Nevzat had revealed the events of October 1981 in great detail to members of his family.

Father and brother have now become joint plaintiffs. According to them, Avan Nevzat had intended to take up an offer made by the public prosecutor’s office in Hanover and to testify as principal witness against Düe and his accomplices.

At this point, Aydin received the order for a contract hit via intermediaries working for Düe and consequently lured his friend away from a Turkish village to Istanbul. The accused testified before the court that he and his victim had met up at the hotel on the 20th of March 1991. After hitting his former friend a blow with a spanner he had then strangled him.

Plagued by doubt and seen by witnesses as he entered the hotel, he claims that he went straight to the police afterwards to give himself up. First he claimed that his friend had insulted him and a fight ensued that ended with the killing.

In October 1991, he revised his statement and told the Düe story. He is now facing a 24-year prison sentence.

In the meantime, both the public prosecutor’s office in Hanover and the Mannheimer Insurance Company are well aware of the killer story. However neither party wished to make any statements during the current proceedings.

“I have the impression that something is going to develop there” commented Herwig Springer of the “Mannheimer” legal department yesterday to this newspaper. “We are watching from a distance with interest”.

The authorities in Hanover explained that Düe had been legally acquitted and that suspicions of any involvement in a contract murder were the responsibility of the authorities at the scene of the crime, i.e. in Istanbul.