Naval retired Maj. Levent Bektaş was to respond to prosecutor’s questions about a document known as the Cage plan, which outlines a plot to assassinate non-Muslim community leaders and was allegedly prepared by a group in the military. The document appears to be authentic, according to a report by the Council of Forensic Medicine (ATK). The same report has also established that the signature that appears on the document belongs to Lt. Col. Ercan Kireçtepe.
A list of munitions attached to the Cage plan strongly indicates that it was aimed at creating chaos in society and sparking clashes between the country’s Muslim and non-Muslim citizens, which would eventually lead to a military intervention. The plan was detailed on a CD seized in Bektaş’s office. Bektaş was arrested in April for suspected links to a large cache of munitions unearthed during excavations on land owned by the İstek Foundation in İstanbul’s Poyrazköy district. Bektaş is currently being held in Silivri Prison.
Yıldırım responds to lawyers in Ergenekon cross-examination
Meanwhile Osman Yıldırım, one of the main suspects in the 2006 Council of State shooting, which left a senior judge dead, continued to respond to questions from prosecutors and lawyers of his fellow defendants in the trial of Ergenekon, a clandestine gang charged with plotting to overthrow the government.
Yıldırım’s cross-examination follows his testimony before the İstanbul 13th High Criminal Court in the first of two ongoing trials into Ergenekon. The Council of State shooting case was merged with the Ergenekon trial earlier this year. Yıldırım and other suspects in the Council of State shooting are also accused of throwing hand grenades at the Cumhuriyet newspaper’s headquarters a few days before the Council of State attack. The daily was attacked three times in 2006, on May 5, 10 and 11. The attacks were followed by the Council of State shooting on May 17.
Meanwhile, retired Chief of General Staff Gen. Hüseyin Kıvrıkoğlu stated that he has connections to Ümit Sayın, an Ergenekon suspect who said on Monday that Kıvrıkoğlu informed him about Encümen-i Daniş, a secret group that is composed of members of the state bureaucracy, retired military officers and ambassadors, while responding to prosecutors’ questions.
