Is Adil Öksüz being protected?

Generals have been apprehended but this Adil Öksüz somehow has not been caught yet. He was not only the “imam in charge of the military” of the “Fethullahist Terrorist Organization” (FETÖ), but he was also one of the leaders of the coup attempt, called the “black box.” He was the one who tried to make Chief of General Staff Gen. Hulusi Akar talk to Fethullah Gülen on the phone at Akıncılar Base in Ankara on the night of the coup. 

Öksüz was caught by the Akıncılar Gendarmerie at 3 p.m. on July 16. He appeared before the court 22 hours later at Sincan Courthouse, near Ankara. 

Öksüz was the only civilian among all the apprehended people. However, despite that, there is no apprehension warrant and there is no initial statement. Photos of him in his underwear seen in the papers were not in his file. Also, the file did not mention the GPS device that Öksüz hid in the toilet and was returned to the property and evidence unit. Thus, some very important evidence associated with the coup attempt has been hidden from the court. 

The judges who reached a decision about Öksüz learned about the photograph and the GPS device from the papers. When Öksüz was freed, his GPS device was handed back to him; probably for him to make use of while he was running away.

Prosecutor Cihan Ergün took his testimony. Öksüz said he was in the town of Kazan looking for land to buy. He was sent to the court with an arrest request. The judge who listened to him, Judge Köksal Çetin, had arrested 27 coup stagers up until that moment. When it was Öksüz’s turn, he called prosecutor Ergün at 5:51 a.m.; they spoke for 107 seconds. The judge told the prosecutor that there was no evidence in the file about this person and that he was considering freeing him with a ban from going abroad. The conversation ended with a decision that “this would be suitable.” The prosecutor objected to the release decision in the afternoon. It would have been better if an arrest had been made but it was too late. 

It is not only the judges who are responsible in the Öksüz case. A series of mistakes were made. 

The claim that Öksüz was released in exchange for Akar is out of question because Akar was saved on July 16 at 10:45 a.m., while Öksüz was released on parole in the morning of July 18 at around 5:40 a.m. 

The person who was once Gülen’s right hand, Kemalettin Özdemir, said he knew Öksüz very well from Sakarya University. He reported that Öksüz was the “imam” of the Air Force to both the anti-terror department and national intelligence in 2012 and 2013. 

Öksüz’s FETÖ rank was reported back in 2012 but this background information was not submitted to the judges. This could be attributed to the chaos of that day but, on the other hand, the judges learned about Öksüz’s GPS device after 38 days from press reports.  

He was reported in 2012 and 2013. Since 2002, he has gone abroad 109 times. In 2012 he asked his university for permission to go to Albania. Nobody monitored where he was going and what he was doing. If a similar incident occurred in the U.S., what would the CIA have done? Because we have fought with a FETÖ organization with this mentality, we were on the edge of a cliff on the night of the coup. Except for President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, everybody else acted as if they were fighting but were not seriously fighting. 

Öksüz was the person who knew the entire plan of the coup. He returned from the U.S. one day before with Gülen’s latest instructions. He knew a lot. Even the underwater commandos have been caught but Öksüz has not; doesn’t that sound strange to you? It smells fishy. He cannot be caught or maybe he is being protected. Really, are we looking in the right place for Öksüz?