Lazım Esmaeili (also "Lazem") (1945–28 January 1996) was a Kurdish Iranian drug smuggler operating in Turkey, who was found tortured and shot dead by unknown agents of Turkish and Iranian intelligence in Istanbul.^[1]

Esmaelli was born 1945 in Urmia (West Azarbaijan province) in Iran as a son of Selim.^{[citation needed]}

He moved to Turkey and received a work permit from the Ministry of Interior's General Directorate of Security for the period between May 20, 1991, and September 20, 1992. As of September 1991, he was the partner of the Beyazıt Foreign Trade Co. in Istanbul, where he worked as director. On September 11, 1993, he received a residence permit valid for two years.

On January 15, 1996, he and his partner Askar Simitko were abducted when they left the casino of Polat Renaissance Hotel in Yeşilköy, Istanbul at local time 03:45 or 03:30 am. On January 28, 1996, villagers found the corpses of the two in Kerev Creek, Silivri, about 60 km (37 mi) far from Istanbul. They were tortured, ears cut and shot multiple times.^[2]

• List of kidnappings
• List of unsolved murders
• List of solved missing person cases

• "1998 Report" (PDF). Human Rights Foundation of Turkey. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2009-02-05. (contains the Susurluk reports in English)

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