Destroyed footage trial starts in Istanbul

ISTANBUL

AA photo

The first court hearing in the case of the erasure of video footage documenting an attack toward the Council of State began Aug. 13. 

A total of 10 suspects were tried in Istanbul’s 15th Criminal Court yesterday.

In May 2006, Alparslan Aslan allegedly entered the Council of State court and killed one of the country’s top judges and wounded four others in an attack that has since been linked to a broader crackdown on an alleged illegal gang known as Ergenekon. 

Within in the case allegations arose claiming that security camera disks belonging to the Turkish Armed Forces Pension Fund (OYAK) Security and Defense Systems were erased while Aslan was inspecting the building prior to the attack. It was also claimed that some of the cameras may not have been operational during the day of the assault so as to better cover Aslan’s trail. Ten OYAK employees were detained as part of investigations into the matter. 

At the hearing six of the detained suspects, including OYAK Security and Defense System’s former General Director Orhan Çoban, Deputy General Director Mustafa Tarık Özyılmaz, Electronic Security Systems Director Yavuz Selim Kavaklıoğlu, Information Technologies Director Barış Demirtaş, technician Serkan Akyıldız and Maintenance and Assembly Supervisor Metin Almalı were brought into the courtroom while 10 pending suspects were also present. The detained suspects are being tried with aggravated life imprisonment due to “attempting to eliminate the order set forth by the Constitution or to establish a new order replacing this one or to prevent the execution of this order,” court records said. 

Furthermore the same suspects are being charged with “assisting a planned murder because of public service” and “assisting the attempt of a murder” on the accounts of the death of Council of State member Mustafa Yücel Özbilgin, who lost his life in the attack, and the assault of Mustafa Birden, Ayla Gönenç, Ayfer Özdemir, Ahmet Çobanoğlu. 

A jail sentence between 100 and 150 years has been requested for the suspects.