Police detains lawyer of intel truck prosecutors, 13 bags of ‘secret docs’ seized: Reports

ANKARA – Anadolu Agency

Police in Ankara on Sept. 8 detained the lawyer of a former Adana Public Chief prosecutor and two other prosecutors who are currently under arrest for ordering the 2014 stop and search of Turkish intelligence service trucks bound for Syria with the alleged purpose of arming Syrian rebels, a claim denied by government officials. 

Executing a warrant against Alp Değer Tanrıverdi, the lawyer for Adana Public Chief prosecutor Süleyman Bağrıyanık and prosecutors Özcan Şişman and Aziz Takçı, police teams raided the house of the lawyer in the Globaşı district of Ankara. During the raid, police teams also seized 13 bags of documents that were designated as confidential state documents. Police also seized a computer belonging to Takçı during their raid. Meanwhile, the families of Takcı and another arrested prosecutor, Ahmet Karaca, were spotted inside the house of Tanrıverdi. 

Bağrıyanık, former Adana gendarmerie commander Staff Col. Özkan Çokay, Takçı, Şişman and Karaca have been charged with “attempting to overthrow the state” and “revealing information about the state’s security and political activities” for stopping the trucks for a search in January 2014. 

The truck incident precipitated more legal turmoil involving the prosecutors and officers involved in the search, as well as daily Cumhuriyet journalists Can Dündar and Erdem Gül who covered the incident in depth, which resulted in them being charged with revealing state secrets.