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General Staff’s ‘mole probe’ defense collapses
This statement seems to undermine an earlier General Staff explanation about two military officers who were detained Friday on charges of taking part in a plot to assassinate a deputy prime minister.
The General Staff had earlier said that two military officers detained in an investigation into an alleged plot to assassinate Deputy Prime Minister Bülent Arınç were actually gathering intelligence on another army officer, suspected of espionage.
When eight officers were detained last week as part of an assassination probe into Arınç, the General Staff provided an alibi, saying they were gathering intelligence about an officer suspected of leaking sensitive military information. Yesterday, the General Staff released a statement saying the probe had yielded no evidence to believe that the military officer under surveillance was guilty of leaking information.
Last week two officers of the Special Forces Command's Tactical Mobilization Group were apprehended as they stood watch near Arınç's house in Ankara's Çukurambar neighborhood. In the ensuing investigation, eight officers were detained.
Five of the officers were released by the prosecutors, while three others who were referred to court by prosecutors demanding their arrest were later released by the on-duty Ankara 12th High Criminal Court. Among those released were three colonels who will face trial over their role in the alleged conspiracy. They are being charged with serious acts. The prosecution accuses Col. Yusuf Akal, Col. E. Y. B. and Major İbrahim G. of “establishing an armed organization.” All eight officers testified to Prosecutor Mustafa Bilgili. The interrogation lasted for a total of nine hours. The three officers were released by the Ankara 12th High Criminal Court on the grounds that there was not adequate evidence to keep the officers in custody.
Newspapers yesterday reported on the answers given to civilian prosecutors by the officers detained in the investigation. In response to a question on what the two officers were doing near Arınç’s house, the officers said they were gathering intelligence about a possible document leaker in the military. In response to a question on who that person might be, the officers named an officer serving at a central post in Ankara.
The officers have been released, but civilian investigators have started a search of the Special Forces headquarters where confidential documents of the military are archived, referred to as “the cosmic rooms,” despite resistance from the military. The judge who issued the search warrant and a civilian prosecutor are going through the documents in the Special Forces Command building, but the investigators are not allowed to make copies of the documents. They have been able to take some of the documents out of the building, but this has also been a severely restricted option so far.
Meanwhile, yesterday afternoon two vehicles allegedly tailing the judge were stopped by the police and searched.
The two cars were stopped near a bank at Ankara’s Uğur Mumcu Street. Two naval officers were inside one of the cars, reports said, however, the identity of the two men was not revealed. The prosecutors gave no information about the individuals in the second car, either, but they have also been confirmed to be military personnel. Reports said one of the vehicles tailing the judge belongs to the 4th Army Corps, while the other one belongs to the naval forces. Both vehicles and their passengers were taken to General Staff headquarters. There were also claims that wiretapping equipment had been installed in one of the cars.
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