Three Redhack suspects released, one to testify

ANKARA - Hürriyet Daily News

Hürriyet photo

Ankara’s 13th Court of Serious Crimes has begun hearing a cased against 10 alleged members of the socialist hacker group RedHack that are accused of “committing a crime in the name of an armed terror organization despite not being a member of a terror organization.”

The prosecutor had demanded the release of three arrested suspects, Duygu Kerimoğlu, Alaaddin Karagenç and Uğur Cihan Okutulmuş, and the judge did ultimately release them.

Another suspect, Reşit Pınaroğlu, who was detained in Istanbul, is being transferred to Ankara to testify in court. The judge will make a decision on Pınaroğlu after his testimony.

The case’s three arrested suspects delivered their first plea in the morning session of the hearing following a nine-month pre-trial period. The legal probe into RedHack was launched after the group staged a cyber attack on the Ankara Police Department’s website in February; prosecutors are demanding up to 24 years in prison for the suspects’ alleged crimes.

The group, however, has consistently said those on trial have nothing to do with the organization.

Arrested suspect Uğur Cihan Okutulmuş, a high school student, said he did not have enough computer skills to hack the website of the Ankara Police Department.

“I heard about the hacking of the Ankara Police Department’s website on Facebook. There’s no evidence that I accessed that website. There are no charges against me in the expert report,” Okutulmuş said.

Another arrested suspect, Duygu Kerimoğlu, a university student studying computer programming, also denied the charges, saying she did not use any computer program that could be used for hacking purposes.

“Hacking requires high-level computer skills, yet I don’t know any hacking. I don’t even have any programs for hacking in my computer. If I had had such computer skills, I wouldn’t have studied two-year vocational college for five years,” Kerimoğlu said.

The prosecutor’s charges are based on a comment on her Facebook site that was made before the Ankara police’s website was hacked, Kerimoğlu said.

University student Alaattin Karagenç, the third arrested suspect, said he chatted with a RedHack member nicknamed “Manyak” about technological issues in an online chat room but had not received any instructions about hacking.

“Our detention is not based on evidence – it’s based on denunciations,” Karagenç said.
All arrested suspects demanded their release.

Main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) lawmakers İlhan Cihaner, Veli Ağbaba and Özgür Özel are also following the hearing.