100th Hearing of Ergenekon Trial Approaching

On 20 October 2008, the Istanbul 13th Heavy Penal Court started hearing the case of the clandestine ultranational Ergenekon organisation, said to have planned to overthrow the government and to create chaos in the country with murders and attacks.

There are 86 suspects, 31 of them in detention.

Today (11 June) is the 100th hearing of the case. The court meets not in central Istanbul, but in Silivri, a district far outside the centre.

The case began with 46 detained suspects, but fourteen have been released: Gazi Güder, Muammer Karabulut, Vedat Yenerer, Orhan Tunç, Sami Hoştan, Serhan Bolluk, Abdulmuttalip Tonçer, Vatan Bölükbaşoğlu, Hüseyin Gazi Oğuz, Bekir Öztürk, Abdullah Arapoğulları, Rasim Görüm, Oğuz Alparslan Abdülkadir and Halil Behiç Gürcihan.

Businessman Kuddusi Okkır, who had been arrested as part of the investigation and sent to prison in Tekirdağ, Northwestern Turkey, died on 6 July 2008, before the trial began.

Ayşe Asuman Özdemir was released on 17 July 2008, and Ferit İlsever on 29 August 2008, both for health reasons. General Şener Eruygur, who had been in Kocaeli prison, was released after suffering a brain haemorrhage on 21 September 2008.

Retired General Hurşit Tolon was taken to a military hospital in Istanbul after falling ill in Silivri prison, and he was released on 6 February 2009.

Prof. Dr. Erol Manisalı, who had been arrested on 17 April, also fell ill in prison. He was operated on in hospital and then released for health reasons.

Following the decision of the Supreme Court of Appeals, the Ankara 11th Heavy Penal Court has decided to merge the case of the attacks on the State Council and the Cumhuriyet newspaper with the Ergenekon case.

Furthermore, the Malatya 3rd Heavy Penal Court has asked the prosecution to investigate whether there is any relation between Ergenekon and the murder of three Christian men in Malatya in 2007.

At the court hearing on 9 June, judge Köksal Şengün reprimanded defendant retired noncommissioned officer Oktay Yıldırım for saying "Do you call this a trial?"

The court has decided to send documents confiscated from defendant Mehmet Zekeriya Öztürk to the General Staff in order to find out whether they relate to state security and what degree of confidentiality they are under.

In addition, the court has demanded recordings and documents of the questioning of Tuncay Güney, a mysterious figure now living in Canada, who was asked about the formation of an illegal structure by General Veli Küçük in 2001 and 2002.

Defence Lawyer Metin Çetinbaş, whose client is Prof. Kemal Alemdaroğlu, a defendant accused of "forming and leading an illegal organisation and incitement to armed rebellion against the government", has defended recorded telephone conversations in which possible assassinations of people like writer Orhan Pamuk and journalist Fehmi Koru were discussed, saying: "Can you try someone for killing someone just because they thought about killing someone? Precautions can be taken to ensure someone is safe, but showing these telephone chats as assassination attempts is either prejudice or ignorance." (EÖ/AG)