One person arrested for ‘leaking’ data of foundation close to government

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Detained for "leaking" the documents of the Turkey Youth Foundation (TÜGVA), Ramazan A. has been arrested.

Referred to the İstanbul Courthouse in Çağlayan, Ramazan A. was first interrogated at the public prosecutor's office. He was then referred to the İstanbul Criminal Judgeship of Peace on Duty with a request for his arrest on charges of "giving or obtaining data in an unlawful manner" and "hindering, disrupting the system and destroying, tampering with data".

The judgeship has ruled for his arrest.

What happened?

It was revealed that the Turkey Youth Foundation (TÜGVA), a foundation with close ties to the government and with President and ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) Chair Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's son Bilal Erdoğan among its founders, kept the credentials of some people in its database and helped these people to get jobs in institutions through references.

Journalist Metin Cihan, last month (October 12), published the documents that he said had been leaked to him from the TÜGVA.

Among the documents, there were lists of people to be appointed in state institutions, including the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK), the General Directorate of Security, the Ministry of Justice and judicial institutions.

Releasing a statement after the revelations, TÜGVA Chair Enes Eminoğlu said that the documents were fake.

"TÜGVA is not the only target in this plot. All of our foundations and associations that serve national and spiritual values are on the target," he said. "Shared documents are created, forged documents. If they have documents, they should deliver them to the country's prosecutors."

The İstanbul Public Prosecutor's Office Terror and Organized Crimes Bureau launched an investigation into the incident and identified Ramazan A. as a suspect. Entertaining "the possibility that he had been made to infiltrate into the foundation as part of an organized plan", the police teams took Ramazan A. into custody upon the instruction of the prosecutor's office on November 21, 2021. A. has been arrested. (TP/SD)