Former Turkish minister likely to be imprisoned again

ANKARA

Mehmet Ağar (C) had previously served one-and-a-half years in prison for his role in the Susurluk scandal. DHa photo

Disgraced former Turkish Interior Minister Mehmet Ağar is highly likely to be imprisoned once more following a Constitutional Court ruling.

The Constitutional Court rejected a request by the Ankara 11th Criminal Court to annul a probation law since the lower court was unauthorized to effect such a move, Anadolu Agency reported Nov. 15.
The top court’s rejection will result in Ağar losing his right to release under probation, meaning he will likely end up back behind bars.

Ağar had previously served one-and-a-half years in prison for his role in the Susurluk scandal, a case involving a shadowy, illegal organization in the 1990s and was released on one-year monitored probation.

On Oct. 2, the Ankara 11th High Criminal Court approved an indictment demanding life sentences for 12 suspects, including Ağar and former Chief of Police İbrahim Şahin, over the 1993 murder of Mecit Baskın.
 
Prosecutor Mustafa Bilgili filed charges of “homicide within the framework of activity of an armed organization established to commit crime.” Baskın was the former head of the registry office in Ankara’s Altındağ district.

The indictment accuses the suspects of involvement in the killing of Baskın by kidnapping him in Ankara and shooting him at night.