Former Police Chief testifies in Ankara
ANKARA - Anatolia News Agency
Hanefi Avcı is a suspect in the Oda Tv and Revolutionary Headquarters probes. AA photo
Former Police Chief Hanefi Avcı, a suspect in two high profile cases, yesterday arrived at an Ankara courthouse in the company of gendarmerie troops to testify before specially authorized prosecutors in the ongoing Revolutionary Headquarters probe.Gendarmerie units brought Avcı to Ankara from Istanbul’s Silivri Prison, where he is currently being held under arrest in connection with the Oda TV trials and the probe into the Revolutionary Headquarters, an armed and outlawed left-wing organization.
Avcı was also arrested on the charge of violating the secrecy of an investigation following the publication of his book titled “Haliç’te Yaşayan Simonlar: Dün Devlet Bugün Cemaat” (Devoted Residents of Haliç: Yesterday State, Today Religious Community), which alleges the religious Gülen community has covertly taken control of the state, even though Avcı himself was earlier known to have been close to the community.
Avcı was also implicated in the testimony of Ayhan Çarkın, a former special operative whose confessions regarding extrajudicial killings in the 1990s during the conflict between government forces and the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) has led to the arrests of a number of other security officials.
The case regarding Oda TV, an online news portal known for its fierce criticism of government policies, began after the police conducted a search of the website’s offices in February last year as part of the ongoing Ergenekon investigation.
Ergenekon is an alleged ultranationalist gang accused of plotting to overthrow the government by breeding chaos in society.
