Top judicial body launches probe into raid on Turkish military’s top secret room

Oya Armutçu ANKARA

The Supreme Board of Judges and Prosecutors (HSYK) has granted permission for a legal review of the 2010 raid on the room where the Turkish military’s top secret documents were held.

The HSYK’s 3rd Chamber issued the decision after the investigation which triggered the raid was dropped by a prosecutor in Ankara for lack of evidence last week, Hürriyet has learned.

The raid on the room at Turkey’s General Staff, known as the “Cosmic Room,” referring to its top-secret NATO classification, followed claims about an alleged plot to assassinate Deputy Prime Minister Bülent Arınç in late 2009.

Government figures now say the raid could have been a “plot” organized by the followers of U.S.-based Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen, the government’s ally-turned-nemesis, inside the judiciary and the security civil service.

“Did they try to conduct an operation through me? It is an ugly expression, but did they abuse me?” Arınç said in December 2014, referring to the Gülenist civil servants whom the government has been targeting in various ways, including major reshuffling and criminal probes.

Two key irregularities found

The new prosecutor in the Cosmic Room investigation, Tekin Küçük, reportedly concluded last week there was no tip-off, contrary to what his colleague had said in the notification which justified the raid.

Küçük’s decision to drop the case also stated it was not known who had made the copies of a hard disk containing information gathered from the room, which was as big as 1.5 terabytes, as no protocol about the process was found.

The latest HSYK decision paves the way for disciplinary action against Judge Kadir Kayan, who entered the room, as well as the first prosecutor of the investigation, Mustafa Bilgili.

Kayan’s file has been sent to the Court of Appeals, of which he is a member.