Court ties judge’s death to Ergenekon

Hurriyet Daily News with wires

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For many, merging the Council of State attack case with that of an alleged organization aimed at toppling the government, was obligatory as the first indictment of the Ergenekon investigation listed the May 2006 attacks among the main activities of the plotters. The consent of the Istanbul court trying the coup suspects is now required for the two cases to be merged.
"We should all trust the judiciary. It works on its way," Parliament Speaker Köksal Toptan told reporters yesterday.

On May 17, 2006, 31-year-old Alparslan Aslan, a lawyer, stormed into the Council of State, killing a senior judge and wounding four others as a reaction to the judges’ ruling to bar an elementary school teacher from receiving a promotion for wearing a headscarf off-duty. The attack triggered a series of secularist demonstrations targeting the pro-Islamic Justice and Development Party, or AKP.

Last year, an Ergenekon prosecutor investigating an alleged plot against the government, argued that Aslan had posed as an Islamist radical but was in fact acting on behalf of the plotters.

In December, the appeals court quashed Aslan’s life sentence, calling for his retrial as part of the coup case, along with five other men who were jailed for helping him in the attack. Aslan had also confessed to organizing three grenade attacks in Istanbul against the secularist newspaper Cumhuriyet several days before the court shooting.

During yesterday’s hearing, assailant Aslan stirred up trouble and shouted, "I’ll cut off those who try the headscarf. Go to Israel!" As he continued to shout he was taken out of the court room.

The Ergenekon investigation began with the discovery of 27 hand grenades June 12, 2007, in a shanty house in Istanbul's Umraniye district that belonged to a retired noncommissioned officer. The grenades were later found to be the same as those used in attacks on Cumhuriyet daily’s Istanbul offices in 2006.