 |
Action plan trial continues despite vacationing judges
The court, also known as the Ergenekon court, is hearing the case against the Ergenekon terrorist organization, a clandestine organization nested within the state and bureaucracy with the ulterior motive of creating chaos in society in order to provoke a military takeover.
The trial concerns a subversive plot titled the Action Plan to Fight Reactionaryism. The plot details a military plan to destroy the image of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) and the faith-based Gülen movement in the eyes of the public, play down the Ergenekon investigation and gather support for members of the military arrested as part of the investigation into Ergenekon. The plot is believed to have been prepared by Col. Dursun Çiçek, who is currently in prison on coup charges.
Çiçek and six other suspects, including lawyer Serdar Öztürk; Ulusal TV security head Ufuk Akkaya; Aydınlık Editor-in-Chief Deniz Yıldırım; İlhami Ümit Handan, the secretary of former İstanbul Mayor Bedrettin Dalan; and National Intelligence Organization (MİT) official Özel Yılmaz are on trial in the case.
During yesterday’s hearing, Akkaya gave his deposition and was cross-examined. The presiding judge of the court, Köksal Şengün, another judge and a prosecutor were absent during yesterday’s hearing because they were on their annual vacations.
Due to Şengün’s absence, Judge Hüsnü Çalmuk presided over yesterday’s hearing. Since Judge Hasan Hüseyin Özese was also on his annual leave, Faik Saban, a judge at the İstanbul 13th High Criminal Court in Beşiktaş, was temporarily assigned to Özese’s seat. Since prosecutor Nihat Taşkın has been on his annual leave for two weeks, only prosecutor Mehmet Ali Pekgüzel is representing the prosecutors.
Saban became a subject of controversy following the disputed release of Col. Çiçek in July 2009. On June 30, 2009, Saban was temporarily assigned to the 14th High Criminal Court that later ruled for Çiçek’s release.
Following Çiçek’s arrest by the 14th High Criminal Court in early July last year, his lawyers objected to the court ruling. After examining the lawyers’ objection, the court ruled for Çiçek’s release 16 hours after his arrest, by two votes to one. The court ruling led to a controversy about whether Çiçek’s release was fair.
The Young Civilians, a nongovernmental organization that is against the military playing a role in politics, had mocked the court’s ruling and sarcastically said Saban should enter the Guinness World Records book, as the judge apparently was able to examine hundreds of pages of documents about Çiçek in two hours and ensure the release of a suspect in such a short time, although it took his colleagues 18 days to rule for the same suspect’s arrest.
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| AMANDA PAUL |  |
||
| Ukraine: a lost country | |||
| BÜLENT KENEŞ |  |
||
| What befell Niyazi-i Misri in the past is happening to Fethullah Gülen now | |||
| MÜMTAZER TÜRKÖNE |  |
||
| The 52nd anniversary of May 27 | |||
| ARZU KAYA URANLI |  |
||
| On Memorial Day a few words to make your day memorable | |||
| CUMALİ ÖNAL |  |
||
| Critical months for Egypt | |||
| ŞAHİN ALPAY |  |
||
| Uludere, test case for democracy in Turkey | |||
| EMRE USLU |  |
||
| Are the Kurds mentally divorced from Turkey? | |||
| GÖKHAN BACIK |  |
||
| Erdoğan, Gül and Davutoğlu: the inner bargain on Turkish foreign policy | |||
| DOĞU ERGİL |  |
||
| Qualities of power | |||
| YAVUZ BAYDAR |  |
||
| Qualm | |||
| ÖMER TAŞPINAR |  |
||
| A new phase in Syria? | |||
| JOOST LAGENDIJK |  |
||
| Europe can’t have it all. Or can it? | |||
| İHSAN DAĞI |  |
||
| Turkish foreign policy: Time for a re-evaluation | |||
| MELİH ARAT |  |
||
| Handmade | |||
| SEYFETTİN GÜRSEL |  |
||
| Poor-friendly economic growth and the AK Party | |||
|
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
