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Secret witnesses offered help from top jurists to retract testimonies
Among those top jurists were Supreme Court of Appeals Chief Prosecutor Abdurrahman Yalçınkaya and Hasan Gerçeker, the court’s president.
The case is related to an alleged military plot drafted by an active duty colonel against faith-based groups in Turkey. The plot is believed to have been put into operation in Erzincan by Chief Public Prosecutor İlhan Cihaner and 3rd Army Commander Gen. Saldıray Berk.
According to the documents, one of the secret witnesses in the case, using the code name “Fırat,” said he received an offer to receive help dismissing any future criminal action against him from Yalçınkaya and Gerçeker if he agreed to retract his testimony in the case. “Erol Erdoğan said he would help me meet with [Republican People’s Party (CHP) İzmir deputy] Ahmet Ersin. Ersin would arrange for me to meet with top judges. He said I would even meet with Yalçınkaya and Gerçeker. He would do all this if I agreed to withdraw my previous testimony and claim that I was forced to make that testimony under duress,” the witness is quoted as saying in the documents.
Erdoğan is the one of the owners of the Paradise Patisserie in Erzincan, where CHP deputy Ersin met with another secret witness, “Munzur,” and urged him to withdraw his testimony in the case.
“I did not retract my testimony because I felt they would make use of me,” Fırat added.
Munzur, is also quoted in the documents as saying that he was offered TL 2,000 to change his testimony in the case.
According to Fırat, he also received a similar offer, but the sum was increased to TL 80,000 when he did not accept the offer. “They called me to Erdoğan’s patisserie. A man brought a black suitcase. He said there was TL 80,000 in the suitcase. He said he would give the suitcase to me if I agreed to withdraw my testimony,” he said, and added that he had filed a criminal complaint against Erdoğan.
Earlier this year, Ersin acknowledged having talked to the secret witnesses but added that he had no idea who they were. He said he would not have talked to them if he had known that they were secret witnesses in any case.
On Dec. 20 Ersin paid a visit to three National Intelligence Organization (MİT) officials who were arrested as part of the Erzincan probe. The deputy later paid a visit to Cihaner, who was put behind bars last month on charges of membership in a terrorist organization and falsification of documents.
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