Third Ergenekon Indictment to Be Announced on 3 August

The third indictment in the investigation into the clandestine ultranationalist Ergenekon organisation will be accepted or rejected by the Istanbul 13th High Criminal Court on 3 August.

The Istanbul Chief Public Prosecution prepared the indictment and presented it to the court on 21 July. There are 52 defendants in the case, 37 of them in detention.

It is expected that the third indictment will also include extrajudicial killings that took place in the Kurdish-majority areas in the east and southeast of Turkey.

Second hearing of second trial

On 6 August, at the second hearing of the second Ergenekon trial, the court will use forensic medical reports to decide on the health of retired generals Hurşit Tolon and Şener Eruygur. It will also decide on prosecutor Mehmet Ali Pekgüzel's request that defendants Sinan Aygün, president of Ankara's Chamber of Commerce, and lawyer Levent Temiz be arrested.

Medical treatment for the officers...

Retired general Levent Ersöz, who had been at the military GATA hospital, was sent to Silivri prison on 29 July. However, the following day, he was sent to Silivri state hospital.

His lawyer, Ali Rıza Dizdar, said that Ersöz, who was commander of the clandestine JİTEM (gendarmerie intelligence anti-terrorism unit) in the province of Şırnak at a time when there were many unsolved murders, was facing problems of care in prison.

Dr Nur Birgen, the controversial head of the 3rd specialist committee of the Forensic Medical Institute, had signed a previous report that İbrahim Şahin, convicted in the Susurluk case and now a defendant in the Ergenekon case, had lost his memory. Based on that report, he had been granted an amnesty by then President Ahmet Nejdet Sezer.

Birgen's signature is also under a report that asks for the release of defendant retired Colonel Arif Doğan.

Meanwhile, retired General Veli Küçük, a defendant in the first Ergenekon trial, was taken to Bakırköy state hospital for a medical check-up from Silivri prison on 29 July.

His daughter and lawyer Zeynep Küçük said that when her father had been unwell before and taken to hospital, he had been told to come back in three months for a check-up, but that it had taken four months for him to be taken back. (EÖ/AG)