54 judiciary accused of trying to overthrow gov’t

ISTANBUL

An indictment accusing 54 judges and prosecutors of staging a conspiracy during the “Selam Tevhid” investigation, an alleged terror group formed to justify the wiretapping and investigations by the “Fethullah Terror Organization/Parallel State Structure” have been prepared.

The 3,149 page indictment charges the accused judiciary of 10 different crimes including trying to overthrow the government, forming an armed terror organization and political and military spying. The indictment has been submitted to the court, asking for an aggravated life sentence, a life sentence and jail sentences varying from 67 years to three months.

Based on the 800-page report drafted by the Supreme Council of Judges and Prosecutors (HSYK) Inspection Board, “the conspiracy in the Selam Tevhid investigation” conducted by Istanbul’s Bakırköy Deputy Chief Public Prosecutor Ömer Faruk Aydıner has been completed. The indictment has been sent to the 2nd Bakırköy High Criminal Court covering terror and organized crime. If the court decides to accept the indictment, the 54 suspects, will be tried at the Supreme Court of Appeals, as they are judges and prosecutors.

The charges of the indictment include “forming and managing an armed terror organization, being a member of the organization formed, political and military espionage, disclosing state secrets, attempting to overthrow the government, fabricating crime, violation of privacy, recording data collected unlawfully, destroying, hiding and tempering evidence, fraud in official documents and abuse of power.”

The court is expected to rule to accept or reject the indictment in 15 days. The HSYK decided to recall 49 of the 54 judiciary members on July 14, 2015. All of the 54 were banned from travelling abroad by a Bakırköy court on Nov. 3, 2015.

Some of those accused in the indictment are judges of the Ergenekon case (Sedat Sami Haşıloğlu and Fatih Mehmet Uslu), judges from the match rigging case (Mehmet Ekinci, Hikmet Şen and Seyfettin Mermerci), the prosecutor of the Dec. 25 investigation (Muammer Akkaş), the prosecutor who called National Intelligence Agency (MİT) undersecretary Hakan Fidan for a statement (Sadrettin Sarıkaya); the prosecutor and chief residing judge of the Hrant Dink case (Hikmet Usta and Rüstem Eryılmaz, respectively), the prosecutor of the Dec. 17 investigation (Celal Kara), the prosecutor and judges of the Balyoz or “Sledgehammer” case (Hüseyin Ayar and Murat Üründü, Gökmen Demircan, Davut Bekir, respectively); and Judge Nalan Can, who refused a re-trial for the Balyoz Case and the justice of peace who ruled for the decisions of phone tapping and detention within the scope of the Dec. 25 investigation.