Some news sites like Cumhuriyet, Posta, Aydınlık and Duvar published the passport photo of Mashrapov by showing the source as the “police”. It was argued that the photo belongs to the assailant of Reina attack. The claim that the name of the assailant is Mashrapov and he went to Kyrgyzstan morning of January 3 was also discussed on social media.
However, according to the interview given by Mashrapov to an news agency named Turmush and its news site AKIpress, the claims shared on social media does not reflect the truth.
In the interview, he said that after the claims become viral on social media, Kyrgyz National Security Committee officers came to his house in Osh region, Kyrgyzstan and after a short interrogation he was released.
Mashrapov stated that "I have no idea who the suspect is, and have no idea how photo of my passport got into the social networks. I am from Kara-Suu. I am trading at the Kara-Suu market called Turatali since 2011. When the terrorist attack happened, on December 31, I was in Kyrgyzstan. I have no relation with the terrorist attack in Turkey. I've been visiting Istanbul since 2011 on business purposes.”
In the interview, Mashrapov stated that he came to Istanbul on December 28th, returned to Bishkek on December 30th, he was in Bishkek on December 31th. He returned to Turkey on January 1th and returned to Kyrgyzstan on January 3th. He also said that he was questioned by the Turkish airport security and his flight was delayed because of this.
AKIpress also published Mashrapov’s photos the passport pages with the stamps of the dates he entered and left Kyrgyzstan.
The photo of the passport page with the date stamps.
You may watch the video of the interview Mashrapov gave to AKIpress.
