I didn’t choose to be brother of Turkey’s central coup figure, Öksüz tells court

KARABÜK

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The arrested brother of one of the central figures from Turkey’s coup attempt has denied all charges, saying he “did not choose” to be the brother of fugitive Adil Öksüz. 

Asst. Prof. Ahmet Öksüz demanding his release in the trial on June 5, saying he is under arrest for “crimes allegedly committed by someone else.”

“I didn’t choose to be the brother of Adil Öksüz. But I’ve been in jail for 11 months for a crime allegedly committed by someone else. This is a violation of the rule of the individuality of crime,” Öksüz told the court during a hearing of the case into the Fethullahist Terror Organization (FETÖ), widely believed to have orchestrated the failed July 15, 2016 coup attempt. 

Adil Öksüz was detained at the Akıncı Air Base, used by the coup-plotters as headquarters, shortly after the attempted takeover and was kept in detention for two days. He was then released on probation and has been on the run ever since. 

Ahmet Öksüz is one of 16 academics - of whom two are being tried without arrest, one is a fugitive and 13 are under arrest - being tried in a case in the Black Sea province of Karabük. They face between five and 10 years in jail on charges of being “members of an armed terrorist organization.” 

Repeating what he said in the previous hearing, he said he is “distant from FETÖ.” 

The head of the court asked Öksüz about his wife being a user of the ByLock smartphone application, which came to prominence after it emerged that the followers of the U.S.-based Islamic preacher Fethullah Gülen used it.

Öksüz’s wife, Havva Emel Öksüz, was detained in an operation against the Gülenists and was released with the effective remorse law. 

When asked whether he asked his wife about who she spoke to using the application, Öksüz said “he was not curious.” 

“I spoke to my wife. But I didn’t ask her who she was talking to. I don’t know who she spoke to. I didn’t know she was a ByLock user. I asked her and she said, ‘Yes, I did use it. I only used it for a short period of time and that’s why I didn’t tell you.’ I didn’t ask her any details about her conversations. Honestly, I wasn’t curious,” Öksüz said. 

The court ruled for the continuation of the suspects’ arrest. 

Elsewhere, detention warrants were issued for 47 personnel from both the Education Ministry and the Transport Ministry over FETÖ accusations on June 6. 

The Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office sought the detention of 17 personnel from the Transport Ministry and 30 personnel from the Education Ministry. 

The suspects are believed to have been users of ByLock. 

Also on June 6, another 100 detention warrants were issued for teachers who were previously suspended from their posts with state of emergency decrees in Istanbul and over 70 were detained.