Indictment against jailed DEVA Party co-founder Metin Gürcan accepted

ANKARA

A court in the capital Ankara has accepted an indictment prepared by a public prosecutor’s office against Metin Gürcan, a co-founder of the opposition Democracy and Progress Party (DEVA) who was arrested on Nov. 26, 2021, on charges of “political and military espionage.”

Gürcan will appear before a judge on March 30, with prosecutors seeking a life sentence and a prison sentence of up to 35 years.

According to the indictment, Gürcan met various foreign diplomatic missions at different times and “shared highly classified information undermining state security.”

The indictment included one of Gürcan’s visits to “a foreign embassy official,” where he said, “Turkey sends military systems and ammunition to Libya.”

In an official correspondence of foreign secret services, attached to the indictment, Gürcan is nicknamed as “Gurmet,” and his degree of reliability was coded “3,” and the accuracy rating of the information he supplied was coded “C.”

Gürcan is also accused of having supplied information about the Turkish military’s cross-border military action “Operation Olive Branch” in 2018.

“A foreign intelligence agent says, ‘Yes, I understand. Thanks, Metin’ after getting the information,” said the indictment.