 |
Additional folders show espionage gang targeted admirals, families
The additional folders were distributed to defense lawyers on Wednesday during the first hearing of the trial of the gang, which is suspected of having established a prostitution ring to extract vital state security information from high-ranking officers and senior bureaucrats for the purpose of selling sensitive information to foreign intelligence services.
According to the additional folders, a document seized from Col. İbrahim Sezer, the alleged leader of the gang, contained the names of 66 officers and their families. There are notes below each individual that include information about their private lives in a document titled “Çalışmalarım” (My studies).
Another document seized from the house of suspect Emrah Küçükakça, titled “A. kızları” (A. girls), showed that the gang kept tabs on the daughters of 10 admirals. The document also has information about the private lives of these women, as well as their age and sexual preferences. In a flash memory stick seized from Sezer, the investigators also found pornographic footage of a number of military officers, as well as emails and photographs.
The indictment, which lists 56 suspects -- 40 of whom are active duty military officers, including two admirals -- revealed that the gang had more than 165,000 highly confidential documents and 43 video recordings that would put state security at serious risk.
There are varying levels of indictments and differing accusations against the suspects, including violation of the right to confidential communications; illegal wiretapping and recording; violation of one’s right to a private life; recording private information; acquiring or distributing data in violation of the law; forming, administering, membership in and aiding and abetting an organization established for the purpose of crime; destroying documents crucial to national security and the domestic and external benefit of the state; acquiring documents crucial to national security and political and military espionage.
The investigators have found that the criminal organization stole information about various projects from agencies such as the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TÜBİTAK), defense industry giant ASELSAN, the Air Electronics Industry (Havelsan) and Turkish Aerospace Industries (TAI), which develops national military projects. The stolen information was related to projects that were either in the drafting stage or undergoing research and development.
The prosecutor overseeing the probe, Fikret Seçen, claims that the criminal organization had amassed a large database of information on thousands of officers in these organizations. According to the indictment, the gang monitored the movements of even the lowest-ranking civil servants at these four institutions.
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| BÜLENT KENEŞ |  |
||
| What befell Niyazi-i Misri in the past is happening to Fethullah Gülen now | |||
| EKREM DUMANLI |  |
||
| When a call for fairness and reason finds acceptance | |||
| 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 | |||
| MARKAR ESAYAN |  |
||
| Taking lessons from previous experiences with the military | |||
| YAVUZ BAYDAR |  |
||
| Qualm | |||
| ÖMER TAŞPINAR |  |
||
| A new phase in Syria? | |||
| İHSAN DAĞI |  |
||
| Turkish foreign policy: Time for a re-evaluation | |||
| SEYFETTİN GÜRSEL |  |
||
| Poor-friendly economic growth and the AK Party | |||
| CHARLOTTE MCPHERSON |  |
||
| Missing women, missing opportunities | |||
| BERK ÇEKTİR |  |
||
| Changes to incentives for investment in Turkey | |||
| MERVE BÜŞRA ÖZTÜRK |  |
||
| The 1960 coup: a final test for democracy | |||
| AMANDA PAUL |  |
||
| Ukraine: a lost country | |||
| MÜMTAZER TÜRKÖNE |  |
||
| The 52nd anniversary of May 27 | |||
|
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
