Chief freed in spy case as other steps aside

İZMİR

The chief of staff of the naval forces, Vice Admiral Veysel Kösele, who had been arrested as part of a military espionage probe, was released on Sept. 21 pending trial upon his lawyer’s appeal, Doğan news agency reported.

Kösele was arrested on Sept. 15 as part of the İzmir Prosecutor’s Office investigation that started in 2009 into the espionage gang after allegations that the gang reportedly targeted active-duty officers who knew about radar locations. The suspects are also charged with listening to private phone conversations and spying on some officers’ bedrooms with cameras and blackmailing them. In the operation, 93 people including 59 active-duty soldiers have already been detained. The suspects are also charged with sending sex workers to officers’ homes. Also number two of the chief of staff of naval forces Rear Admiral Kemalettin Gür resigned from his post. He was promoted to this post with the latest decision of Turkey’s Supreme Military Council (YAŞ) on Aug. 6.

The military sources said on Sept. 24 that the prosecutor arrested 58 active-duty soldiers for “providing confidential documents” within the military espionage probe in İzmir before asking the General Staff whether the documents were confidential. The General Staff demanded documents from the prosecutor’s office after 23 active-duty soldiers were arrested for providing confidential documents in the first two waves. After examining 35 folders of documents and three DVDs, the Judicial Consultancy inferred that they could not start proceedings without knowing when, where and how the documents were obtained. The prosecutor’s office conducting the operations questioned 295 active-duty soldiers and arrested 58 of them. Then it sent 22 folders of documents to the General Staff and asked whether they were confidential. Asking the question after arresting soldiers on charges of providing confidential documents surprised the staff. Meanwhile, 24 active-duty soldiers who were called to testify have reportedly not yet testified.