JİTEM Informant Aygan Testified in Sweden

Abdülkadir Aygan gave his statement to Swedish authorities in the scope of an investigation carried out by the Public Prosecution of Diyarbakır (south-eastern Turkey). The former member of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) worked for the the illegal and clandestine JİTEM (Gendarmerie Intelligence Anti-Terrorism Unit) later on and currently lives in Sweden.

The Swedish government had previously declined the application by the prosecutors to interrogate Aygan. Four special authority prosecutors had prepared a catalogue of 50 questions in the context of unsolved murders committed in the 1990s in the South-East of the country. Additionally, they had requested Aygan to disclose information he got hold of beyond the questions.

Unsolved murders subject of interrogation

Now it was announced that the questions were translated and forwarded to the Swedish officials via the Ministry of Justice. The questions are concerned with almost a hundred unsolved murders including the killing of Musa Anter, a Kurdish writer and journalist who was murdered in Diyarbakır on 20 September 1992. Thereupon, Aygan was interrogated in Stockholm, as reported by NTVmsnbc.com.

Aygan: Announcement about Demirel and Çiller

According to CNN Türk, Aygan said to issue a statement on Süleyman Demirel and Tansu Çiller, then President and Prime Minister respectively, in the coming days.

Both Demirel and Çiller were among the people vehemently called to be prosecuted because of crimes against humanity and unsolved murders. In the 1990s, many people from the Human Rights Association (İHA) Commission against Disappearances and their relatives disappeared for political reasons or were found dead.

Aygan has been living in Sweden since 2005. Turkey had previously demanded his extradition but Sweden declined saying Aygan's life would be in danger otherwise.

"Rather than being extradited..."

Turkey had demanded Aygan's extradition via Denmark in 2009. In April the same year, Aygan replied to written questions sent to him by bianet. He said that he was worried about the safety of his life and tried to avoid a return to Turkey by any legal means.

He had stated, "I will try all possible legal and personal ways to avoid my extradition to Turkey. I will rather kill myself if I cannot avoid the extradition. I prefer my family to go to the graveyard instead of having myself destroyed after my return to Turkey".

Retired Brigadier General Veli Küçük, defendant of the Ergenkon case, had denied the existence of JİTEM. Thereupon, Aygan had published a written record of JİTEM activities. (EÖ/VK)