Key evidence in Turkey’s Balyoz coup case fabricated: Expert report

ISTANBUL

Hard disk number 5 was fabricated, says expert report in Balyoz case. REUTERS Photo.

An expert report into Turkey’s “Balyoz” (Sledgehammer) coup plot case has revealed that more pieces of evidence in the case were fabricated.

“The team concludes that some additional files and folders were uploaded on hard disk number 5 after July 28, 2009, and that the dates of these files and folders are not up to date,” according to a report by a team of experts that was read to the court.

The retrial of the Balyoz case began on Nov. 3, 2014, after the Constitutional Court ruled unanimously that the convicted suspects’ rights were violated concerning “digital data and the defendants’ testimonies.”

The new report on the evidence is directly linked to former generals Çetin Doğan, Özden Örnek, Halil İbrahim Fırtına, Bilgin Balanlı, Ergin Saygun, Nejat Bek and Süha Tanyeri, along with Engin Alan, who is now a Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) deputy.

All 236 Balyoz suspects and convicts, including high-ranking generals, were released in June 2014 after the Constitution Court ruling. 

Military commanders had been accused of trying to destabilize then-Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) government after the 2002 election, with plans to bomb mosques and trigger a conflict with Greece to pave the way for a military takeover.

Earlier reports had shown that the writings on the CDs were not written by hand, but rather by a machine, probably to imitate the Tanyeri’s authentic handwriting, who was among the suspects.