Top-Level Military Officer Arrested

The Head of the Intelligence Unit of the General Staff, Lieutenant General İsmail Hakkı Pekin, was arrested on Monday (5 September) in the scope of the Internet Memorandum trial. Subject of the case is the order - the so-called Internet Memorandum - to establish 42 internet sites allegedly established by the General Staff Presidency with the aim to discredit the government and religious congregations. Pekin is one out of 14 suspects with an arrest warrant in their names.

Pekin was taken to the Istanbul 13^th High Criminal Court after he had surrendered to the Istanbul Central Command. He was then arrested under allegations of "the attempt to abolish the government of the Turkish Republic or fully or partly prevent it from fulfilling its duty by using force and violence" and "directing a terrorist organization".

"A legal and official document"

Lieut. Gen. Pekin described the internet memorandum as a "legal and official document prepared by the Presidency of the General Staff. It is a legal and official document appropriate to the working and correspondence methods of the military. It was applied upon order subsequent to its approval. My initials are on the document for coordination purposes".

Pekin stated that he fulfilled the duties he was assigned to with enthusiasm and mentioned that he worked in the coordination of the National Intelligence Agency (MİT), the Foreign Ministry and the Police Directorate. He emphasized that the document only contained his initials which he supposedly added for the surveillance of internet sites deemed to support terrorist organizations. According to Pekin, the 430 websites listed in the internet memorandum were being followed up for clear intelligence reasons. He criticized that his prosecution and the demand for a life sentence on the grounds of the surveillance of internet sites that support terrorism was not just.

Pekin claimed that the internet memorandum was not related to internet sites published in the past but that it was prepared for four websites that were going to be newly established.

Pekin's lawyer stated that his client had not been involved in the preparation of the document. He reminded that Pekin's initials were merely added for coordination purposes and stressed that Pekin "only put his initials on the document after seeing that others had already done so". He added, "This activity was carried out within the chain of the institution".

The lawyer put forward that Pekin was diagnosed with severe depression and received psychiatric treatment, his son had a chronic illness and his mother could only be fed via a nose probe. Nevertheless, Lieut. Gen. Pekin was arrested upon the prosecutor's request.

Tenth arrest

Together with Pekin, a total of ten out 14 persons with arrest warrants have been arrested so far: Ret. General Hasan Iğsız, Lieutenant General Mehmet Otuzbiroğlu, Lieutenant General İsmail Hakkı Pekin, Major General Hıfzı Çubuklu, Rear Admiral Alatattin Sevim, Colonels Sedat Özüer and Fuat Selvi, Ret. Colonels Gökçeoğlu and Hulusi Gülbahar and civil servant Bülent Sarıkahya.

The remaining four arrest warrants are issued about Land Forces Training and Doctrine Commander General Hüseyin Nusret Taşdeler, Lieutenant General Mehmet Eröz, Major General Mustafa Bakıcı and Ziya İlker Göktaş. (YY/VK)