A FUGITIVE who spent eight years dodging police has been caught after allegedly disguising himself as a woman and using his sister’s identity to stay off the radar.
Tuğrul Başar was finally snared in Istanbul’s Kadıköy district after a painstaking police surveillance operation.
The wanted convict had been on the run since February 28, 2018, after being convicted for a 2010 crime in Samsun.
He was found guilty on three counts of stealing while posing as an official, the Turkish paper Sozcu reported.
After fooling cops for almost a decade, police discovered that Başar had allegedly adopted a bizarre disguise in a bid to slip through identity checks and evade capture.
Investigators found he was regularly dressing as a woman while moving around the city.
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He was also allegedly carrying his sister’s identity card to conceal his true identity.
Officers from the Istanbul Police Department’s Public Security Branch Directorate had been hunting Başar as part of a wider crackdown on fugitives with finalised prison sentences.
The Fugitive Persons Bureau tracked him down in Kadıköy in Istanbul following intelligence-gathering and both technical and physical surveillance.
Police then swooped in during an operation the previous day and took the escaped convict into custody.
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His sister’s ID was reportedly found on him when he was caught.
The discovery has now triggered a separate investigation into the alleged use of another person’s identity information.
Başar was handed over to the Kadıköy Pier Police Station while officers completed the legal procedures.
He had been wanted over a 2010 offence in Samsun described by Turkish authorities as “theft by impersonating an official without authorisation.”
The crime resulted in a finalised prison sentence, leaving Başar wanted by police for almost eight years.
Authorities said their investigation revealed the fugitive had allegedly relied on his disguise and his sister’s identity to remain hidden from the law.
But after years on the run, his elaborate attempt to disappear finally unravelled in Istanbul.
Başar now faces the existing prison sentence as well as further legal proceedings over the alleged use of another person’s identity information.