Alleged informant arrested in Syria-bound intelligence trucks case

ADANA

Gendarmerie teams stopped the seven trucks in southern Turkey on Jan. 19, 2014 following a tip-off that they were carrying weapons and ammunition to Syria. DHA photo

A non-commissioned officer has been arrested in the southern Turkish province of Hatay for informing the gendarmerie about trucks belonging to the National Intelligence Organization (MİT), which were stopped and searched by soldiers two years ago.

A crisis erupted after the trucks, bound for Syria, were stopped and searched by the authorities on Jan. 1, 2013 in the southern province of Hatay. Another group of trucks was searched by the gendarmerie in the southern province of Adana on Jan. 19.

An officer in the Hatay Provincial Gendarmerie Command’s intelligence office, identified only by the initials H.A., has been arrested on charges of spying, after allegedly tipping off the gendarmerie that the trucks may be smuggling weapons to Syria.

H.A. was detained in the southeastern province of Diyarbakır on Feb. 25 and was sent to court in another southern province, Adana, on Feb. 26, according to a statement released by the Adana court.

The government slammed the prosecutors and soldiers involved in the operations, arguing that both the truck and its personnel were protected by the MİT’s legal immunity.