Haberler      English      العربية      Pусский      Kurdî      Türkçe
  En.Haberler.Com - Latest News
SEARCH IN NEWS:
  HOME PAGE 29/03/2024 10:28 
News  > 

Police Investigators' Defense Thwarted In Iran-Linked Terror Probe

30.09.2014 18:01

The defense team of a group of police chiefs who were detained in a government-orchestrated investigation after the chiefs uncovered the Iran-backed Salam-Tawhid terror organization, implicating senior government officials, have been prevented from mounting a comprehensive defense by not being provided.

The defense team of a group of police chiefs who were detained in a government-orchestrated investigation after the chiefs uncovered the Iran-backed Salam-Tawhid terror organization, implicating senior government officials, have been prevented from mounting a comprehensive defense by not being provided with complete details of the case file on the terror group.

In a public statement, the İstanbul Chief Prosecutor's Office confirmed that the complete details of the Salam-Tawhid investigation were not shared with defense lawyers, citing the right to privacy and the need to protect the content of conversations between state officials.

The lawyers have challenged these justifications, however, on the grounds that their clients' right to fair trial and due process have been violated. They say that if the police chiefs have been charged in connection with the Salam-Tawhid investigation, their lawyers should be able to examine the evidence.

The prosecutor's office has shared only limited information from the case file with the defense so far, frustrating the lawyers, who have demanded unfettered access to the file in order to see the complete picture.

The lawyers have criticized the prosecutor's office, saying they cannot prepare their defense without knowing the details of the Salam-Tawhid investigation, which is the prosecutor's basis for charging their clients in the first place.

The defense also argued that a copy of the case file had earlier been provided to inspectors from the Interior Ministry by the prosecutor's office, wondering why the prosecutor's office did not feel the same concerns when sharing the files with government bureaucrats.

The prosecutor's office has not addressed the complaints raised by defense lawyer Ömer Turanlı on the issue.

Lawyer Turanlı said Article 153 of the Code on Criminal Procedure (CMK) clearly emphasizes the defense's right to examine the case file during the investigation phase. He said the prosecutors have been infringing the rights of the defense according to the CMK.

Turanlı complained that the report prepared by the Interior Ministry's inspectors, which was the basis of the charges brought against the police chiefs, was not shared with the defense either.

Turanlı said the government has also violated Article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), which deals with the defendant's right to fair trial.

A government-orchestrated reshuffle in the judiciary has since assigned Public Prosecutor İrfan Fidan, whom the government is believed to have tasked with derailing the probe, which exposed worrying connections between Iranian agents and senior government officials, with overseeing the Salam-Tawhid investigation.

On July 21, Fidan dropped the three-year investigation into Salam-Tawhid, and instead the police chiefs who had exposed the Iranian network in Turkey were charged as part of a government-backed operation.

Ali Fuat Yılmazer, former İstanbul Police Department Intelligence Unit chief, said Tawhid-Salam has penetrated deep into the government, a tactic amounting to international espionage. He has allegedly been detained by the government to silence he and others involved in the investigation.

After Yurt Atayün, former head of the İstanbul Police Department's counterterrorism unit, testified on charges of illegal wiretapping as part of an operation targeting senior police officers following police raids on July 22, the judge presiding over the case censored sections of Atayün's statement when compiling the case file. It is alleged that the judge aimed to cover up sensitive aspects of the investigation.

Fidan did not order any of the 103 Iranian suspects identified in the investigation file to come to the prosecutor's office to testify as suspects before dropping the charges in July. He did not call on any of them as witnesses during the second phase of the investigation.

Yılmazer said that Iranian suspects, including top operatives from the Iranian Quds Force in Turkey, fled the country after pro-government dailies exposed the investigation as part of a campaign to discredit the probe. The Yeni Şafak and Star dailies published fabricated information, including claims that up to 7,000 unconnected people were wiretapped in an investigation into what they labeled a fake terrorist organization.

The police chiefs who worked on the case file, and the prosecutors who secured court-authorized wiretaps on the suspects, have testified that the actual number of people put under surveillance was 234.

However, Fidan's lack of further investigation into Iranian nationals has raised further suspicions of a cover-up by government officials. The original investigation had determined that Iranian Revolutionary Guard Gen. Sayed Ali Akber Mir Vakili was leading the terrorist group.

Main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) deputy Mahmut Tanal has claimed that President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his allies in the government are closely involved with the Tawhid-Salam organization.

“The government is part of it [Tawhid-Salam],” he said. He filed an objection against the dismissal of the Tawhid-Salam investigation, which was dropped by the İstanbul Prosecutor's Office after political pressure.

The investigation unearthed pro-Iranian figures who have been working for Iran in the Turkish government in various capacities. The names implicated in the case file included National Intelligence Organization (MİT) head Hakan Fidan, Interior Minister Efkan Ala and ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) spokesperson Beşir Atalay.

Tawhid-Salam has been registered as a terror group by senior members of the judiciary in Turkey. In April, the 9th Criminal Chamber of the Supreme Court of Appeals upheld a ruling by the 11th High Criminal Court, sentencing eight defendants who were convicted of killing Turkish intellectuals Uğur Mumcu, Bahriye Üçok, Muammer Aksoy and Ahmet Taner Kışlalı and being members of the terrorist Tawhid-Salam organization to imprisonment.

The organization is also known for killing American, Saudi Arabian and Israeli diplomats, as well as Iranian dissidents who sought refuge in Turkey. The Iranian intelligence-backed organization is also accused of staging a bomb attack that targeted the Israeli Consulate-General in İstanbul's Etiler district in 2011, in which a Turkish woman lost her leg and seven others were injured.

The documents also revealed that Tawhid-Salam conducted intelligence activities in Turkey by profiling high-ranking Turkish officials and deputies as well as obtaining information on key military units and delivering it to Iran's intelligence organization.

The investigation further discovered that the terrorist group carried out reconnaissance on the US Consulate-General in İstanbul in 2010, seemingly in preparation for an attack on the building. Among seized documents were plans of the Nuclear Research Institute in İstanbul's Halkalı neighborhood.

(Cihan/Today's Zaman)



 
Latest News





 
 
Top News