Beringen –
Ahmet Koç, once a voting pro for SP.A in Limburg, has died. The Beringe Fatih mosque announced this news via their social media channels.
Geert Houben and Zahra Boufker
Thursday, March 7, 2024 at 11:44 AM
Ahmet Koç (46) was once a promising SP.A politician. He became a provincial councilor, won more votes than party colleague Meryame Kitir and was an advisor to Deputy Prime Minister Johan Vande Lanotte. Koç went crazy due to drugs and had to appear in court several times.
With a VUB diploma in political science in his pocket and supported by the Beringe Turkish community, Koç quickly made a name for himself in his political early 2000s. The then Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Budget Johan Vande Lanotte brought in the twentysomething from Berings as an advisor between 2003 and 2005. He is also temporarily in the office of Minister of Labor Peter Vanvelthoven. In 2006, the then 29-year-old Koç takes his chance in the municipal elections. Successfully. From position 14, 2,053 Beringen residents color the dot behind his name red. Only the later mayor Maurice Webers did better on the SP.A list. It earns Koç the mandate of alderman. In the 2012 elections he made the jump to the provincial council. In the federal elections, Koç received just under 18,000 votes, or almost a hundred more than Meryame Kitir, who was elected from second place.
After that it goes downhill for Koç. In 2016, he was expelled from the party by then party chairman John Crombez because he called for resistance against the Gülenists on Facebook after the coup in Turkey.
READ ALSO. Former Berings vote cannon Ahmet Koç receives a suspended sentence for drug possession
© Raymond Lemmens
Shooting, lawsuits and drugs
In 2018, the former politician was involved in a shooting. His attacker shot him four times in the Beringse Brugstraat, but he remained unharmed. The shooter ultimately gets fifty months in prison.
READ ALSO. Houthalenaar (52) receives 50 months in prison for firing four bullets at Ahmet Koç
In the years that follow, Koç will appear in court. Only this time he takes the defendant’s seat. In July 2022, the ex-politician will receive an eight-month suspended prison sentence for drug offenses. He was in possession of cannabis, GHB, cocaine and erection pills. Depression and burnout drove him towards drugs, according to the trial. In June 2023, the Hasselt criminal court imposed another 28 months in prison, this time for raping a woman under the influence. The former politician will also lose his rights for five years.
Bert Vanmechelen, lawyer and fellow student of Ahmet Koç, is saddened by the death of the ex-politician. “He was a man with many qualities. Someone with two university degrees. And yes, he has fought demons. He went to treatment for that and did his best,” says the lawyer who confirms that a conviction of Koç was not yet final. There were still proceedings before the Court of Appeal for a judgment that the ex-politician disputed.
The Beringe Fatih mosque has expressed its condolences to his family and relatives: