Enver Altaylı exchanged emails with CIA agents: Court

ANKARA

Enver Altaylı, a former official of the National Intelligence Organization (MİT), had exchanged emails with CIA agents, showed a detailed ruling of a court that handed him a lengthy prison sentence for political and military espionage earlier this month.

The 136-pages thick detailed court ruling included documents retrieved from his computer, such as the email exchanges between Altaylı and CIA agents.

According to the court records, in those exchanges, Altaylı disclosed state secrets.

In one of those emails sent after the failed coup attempt in 2016, Altaylı claimed that he was collecting information through his own intelligence sources on President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

In the email, Altaylı said he wanted to warn “his friends” regarding what he described as a shift in Turkey foreign policy direction, claiming that Erdoğan was steering Turkey toward the Shanghai Alliance.

Among the seized documents were Altaylı’s pictures with CIA agents Ruzi Nazar and Duane Clarridge, who were once stationed in Turkey.

Earlier this month, the court in Ankara sentenced Altaylı to a total of 23 years in prison for “political and military espionage” and membership in a terrorist organization.

He was detained and arrested in 2017 as part of an investigation into the FETÖ, which was responsible for the failed coup attempt.

The 16th High Penal Court announced the verdict on Nov. 8 in the case, which began in January 2020.

Accordingly, Altaylı was given 13 years in prison for political and military espionage and another 10 years for membership in an armed terrorist organization.

Another suspect in the case, former MİT official Mehmet Barıner, also received more than 20 years of prison sentences for the same crimes.