Family denies private’s role in RedHack leaks

ISTANBUL

Utku Kali’s family says the detained private was not a hero or a criminal.

Family of a gendarmerie, who is suspected of leaking secret documents on the Reyhanlı bombings-linked terrorist activities in the southern province of Hatay, bordering Syria, has rejected claims of the soldiers’ involvement in the leaking.

Suspected gendarmerie officer Utku Kalı’s sister and lawyer Ceren Kalı said there was no concrete evidence showing her brother leaked the documents.

“My brother is seen as a suspect because he was the one serving as guard at the time that the documents were sent, coincidentally... This is an extremely grave situation,” she said.

“My brother is not a hero or a criminal,” Kalı added.

Utku Kalı was arrested on May 24, after being taken into custody a day earlier.

Officials accuse the private of taking the photos of the documents and sending them via e-mail to the Turkish hacker group RedHack, which then made them public on May 22.

The documents, belonging to the Gendarmerie Intelligence Department, claimed that an anti-government group in Syria with links to al-Qaeda was planning a car bomb attack that might occur in Turkey. Interior Minister Muammer Güler implied that the documents were authentic. At least 52 people were killed in Reyhanlı on May 11. The RedHack claimed via Twitter that the Kalı was not involved in the leak of the documents.