ERGENEKON CASE

Cumhuriyet newspaper representative Mustafa Balbay is on trial under charges of "attempted change of the constitutional order by armed force" as part of the Ergenekon terror organization. In his defence detained Balbay declared, "I did not incite an armed uprising to the people. I did not even incite an unarmed uprising. I reject the allegations".

When Balbay appeared before the Istanbul 13^th High Criminal Court on 19 November, he opened his speech for his defence saying, "Finally, I am in front of the court after 9 months". He claimed that the diaries imputed to him as mentioned in the indictment did not belong to him.

Facing double life sentence

Balbay was detained on 5 March in the Istanbul High Criminal Court on Duty. He is prosecuted in the context of the Ergenekon case regarding the merged 2^nd and 3^rd indictment. Balbay faces double life sentence in solitary confinement without parole and another 16-80 years imprisonment.

Balbay put forward that his own notes had been rearranged in order to create new evidence. Balbay said, "The allegations of my being a member of a terrorist organization are killing me bit by bit".

"The government cannot be brought down by armed uprisings"

Detained defendant Balbay stated that he did his work as a journalist and rejected the evaluation of his notes as terroristic activities

"Random notes were put together according to the overall aim and presented as a diary. I did not induce an armed uprising to the people, I did not even induce an unarmed uprising. I do not think that the government could be brought down by an armed uprising. I will quit my profession in case any referring findings come up", Balbay said.

Balbay continued, "A journalist is a witness of the era s/he is living in. But they want to make me a defendant". He claimed that the notes the allegations are based on do not account for documents, explaining that some of the notes he took to recall later on.

Journalists from Cumhuriyet daily attended the hearing, as well

The journalist furthermore stated that dates had been added to the notes before they were handed to the court, although his original notes were not dated. Balbay claimed that the notes were modified 2 or 3 times.

Also Cumhuriyet newspaper journalists Hikmet Çetinkaya, Şükran Soner and Ataol Behramoğlu followed the court hearing of the case which prosecutes a total of 53 detained defendants.

The indictment, drafted on 9 March 2009 and containing 1909 pages, points out that "The Ergenekon terror organization's managerial staff was constituted of people with important duties and positions within the society and on the level of state. In order to achieve their aims they easily provided the necessary weapons, ammunition and other supplies. They easily got hold of highly classified state documents. The organization carried out a bomb attack on Cumhuriyet newspaper and an assassination attempt on the State Council...".

Accused of participating in secret meetings

Journalist Balbay is accused of participating in secret meetings held in Ankara to work out the coup plans. Among the 137 defendants in total are retired generals Mehmet Şener Eruygur and Hurşit Tolon, former Istanbul Branch against Organized Crime managerAdil Serdar Saçan, former Esenyurt (Istanbul) mayor Gürbüz Çapan, journalist Tuncay Özkan, retired colonel Arif Doğan and Ankara Trade Chamber (ATO) chairman Sinan Aygün. (EÖ/VK)