Ex-prosecutors of Lighthouse face jail

ANKARA - Hürriyet Daily News

Deniz Feneri logo.

Three prosecutors who were removed from the embezzlement probe into the Deniz Feneri (Lighthouse) case in controversial circumstances could now face jail terms and expulsion from the profession, media reports said.

A prosecutor in Ankara has drawn up an indictment against his three colleagues; the trio will go on trial at an appeals court if the charge sheet is approved by a criminal court.

The indictment seeks up to 11 years in prison for one of the accused prosecutors, Nadi Türkaslan, on charges of forgery in official documents and abuse of office, and jail sentences of up to three years for the other two, Abdulvahap Yaren and Mehmet Tamöz, for abuse of office. The indictment also demands that all three be banned from practicing their profession.

Main oppostion Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu decried the charges as the latest “injustice” to the prosecutors. “The judiciary is fully under AKP control. This latest development is a clear indication of that,” he said yesterday during a party function in Ankara’s Eryaman suburb.
Addressing a crowd of CHP supporters, Kılıçdaroğlu appealed for a new “national liberation movement” to defend democracy and human rights against what he described as the “post-modern dictatorship” of the AKP. “We will wage our struggle in every street, in every neighborhood, in every village,” he said.

Asked to comment about the indictment, President Abdullah Gül said yesterday that the process would be transparent. “Since everything is going take place in a transparent fashion, the mistakes, if any, will be openly discussed in the public opinion,” he said.

The three prosecutors were abruptly removed from the Lighthouse investigation in August 2011 on the grounds that they had misled the authorities into seizing assets belonging to companies in which the suspects were shareholders even though a court had rejected the measure. The court had granted a prosecution request to seize only the personal assets of the suspects, but the prosecutors allegedly tampered with the papers, blacking out the rejection of the second demand. The prosecutors have rejected any wrongdoing. Since then, six high-profile suspects arrested in the probe have been released. k HDN