Taylan Kulaçoğlu Sent to Prison

Accused of being the member alias “Manyak” on RedHack, Taylan Kulaçoğlu has been detained for the second time as of this afternoon. He was later on transferred to Istanbul Courthouse for his arrest order to be read out loud. 

According to judicial procedures, he will now be transferred to Ankara for his arrest order to take effect after spending the night in Metris Prison, Istanbul. 

“My brother will be transferred to Ankara within 24 hours,” Özen Kulaçoğlu told bianet. 

“We would like to feel that we are not alone. I hope my brother’s arrest will be forgotten among Turkey’s chaotic chain of events.” 

“He could run away, but he didn’t”

Advocate Efkan Bolaç, İsmail Demirci and Gülşah Deniz submitted a motion to the arrest order, saying that the elimination method leading to Kulaçoğlu’s arrest had no concrete grounds.   

“This situation must be considered as a suspicion and not be appreciated according to penal law. After his first detention, an international travel ban was issued, but later on he was released. He could run away, if he wanted to. But he didn’t. He was detained again in the restaurant that he was running.” 

“Irrational deductions of cyber police” 

“Considering that Barış Atay was detained as his voice tone was similar to a RedHack spokesperson, it is obvious how irrational and unserious this investigation is being conducted.”

The aforementioned motion defended that the evidence leading to Kulaçoğlu’s arrest were not properly collected and they had no validity. 

“Far from having concrete charges on Taylan, the case is only full of irrational deductions by the cyber police,” the motion cited. 

Interior Minister: We don’t report any file theft 

Recently, responding to an official inquiry by CHP Istanbul deputy Sezgin Tanrıkulu, Interior Minister Muammer Güler said the cyber attacks on IT systems had any impact on their systems. 

Advocate Bolaç continued that they also attached this response to their motion. 

“The aim of arrest is unclear as a document theft is not the issue,” Bolaç said. 

Some of the charges that Kulaçoğlu is facing are as follows: 

“Disclosing top secret information on national security and political interests of the state, founding a crime organization, acquiring top secret document on national security.” (AS/BM)