Man captured in Diyarbakır turns out to be PKK hacker

A search of the computer, seized coincidentally during a police raid against the sellers of stolen goods in Diyarbakır, revealed that the suspect had not only sent MİT documents to the PKK, but also had an "online friendship" with Murat Karayılan, the commander of PKK militants in northern Iraq. R.Ç. was arrested on Nov. 14 on charges of "acquiring state secrets and confidential documents in the name of the PKK terrorist organization"

In his initial testimony, R.Ç. said the computer was his own and that he had downloaded the MİT file from a Web site "out of curiosity." As part of the expanded police investigation a search of the suspect's home was conducted, yielding many compact discs of domestic and foreign films. The police examined the discs' contents carefully and found that some of the CDs marked as films also stored classified information from the General Staff, MİT and other institutions.

However, in his testimony to a prosecutor during the week, R.Ç., a high school dropout and a self-taught computer genius, described in detail how he entered security forces and intelligent units' computers using a computer virus named Poison Ivy, which he had developed. He said the contact between him and the PKK's Karayılan was established through a terrorist friend of his who resides in France. Sources also quoted R.Ç. as describing his acquaintance with Karayılan as: "I know Murat Karayılan through the Internet. I haven't seen him face-to-face."

The young man also said, "I wanted to confess everything I did because I thought the PKK would stage terrorist attacks killing innocent people using the information I gave them and because my conscience is uneasy."