Criminal Complaint against Chief and Vice President of General Staff

The Association of Human Rights and Solidarity for Oppressed Peoples (MAZLUM-DER) Diyarbakır Branch applied to court on 30 October for the prosecution of Chief of General Staff İlker Başbuğ, Vice President Hasan Iğsız and Colonel Dursun Çiçek.

MAZLUM-DER based their criminal complaint on a letter of a whistle-blower that had been sent to the prosecutors engaged in the Ergenekon case.

The letter, sent by an officer who was the secret informant, contained claims about Iğsız to have given the directive for the "action plan against reactionary forces" and about Başbuğ to have been aware of the plan. The latter referred to the document as a "strip of paper" after he had supposedly been convinced that there was no original of the plan.

Aggravated life sentence

MAZLUM-DER demands to prosecute the military members under article 250 of the Criminal Procedure Law (CMK) on "violation of the constitution". The article foresees aggravated prison sentence "for the attempt to eliminate the anticipated order of the Constitution of the Turkish Republic, or the attempt to exchange that order by another one, or the attempt of de facto preventing the application of this order by force and violence".

According to the latest amendments of article 250, in the context of such a criminal offence a civil prosecutor is entitled to conduct an investigation concerning military staff before a civil court. (TK/VK)