Arrests Disputed: Was the Evidence Forged?

Doğan Yurdakul, Publication Director of the OdaTV.com news portal, commented on the police raid on the Oda TV office in Istanbul and the homes of four of its employees. Executive Soner Yalçın, General Publications Director Barış Pehlivan and News Director Barış Terkoğlu were arrested as a result of the investigation.

According to Yurdakul, his colleagues were arrested on the grounds of a 30-page document found on the hard disks regarding the clandestine ultra-nationalist "Ergenekon" organization. The Ergenekon members are charged with various crimes staged for the ultimate purpose of overthrowing the government in a military coup. Journalist Yurdakul claimed that the document had been copied to the computers by hackers.

The CDs seized from the office supposedly contained footage recorded with a hidden camera dated 10 June 2007 showing the then state ministers Ali Çoşkun, Cemil Çiçek and Abdülkadir Aksu in a discussion on the "e-memo" published on 27 April 2007.

It was also alleged that notes were found regarding Abdulkadir Aygan, member of the illegal Gendarmerie Intelligence Anti-Terrorism Unit JİTEM. Apparently, these were documents and records prepared by the National Intelligence Agency (MIT) upon "reactionary activities" labelled as "classified" and on the initiative to have a book written by Sabri Uzun, former Head of the Intelligence Office.

"Information was placed on computers via Trojan horses"

As announced by Serkan Günel, joint attorney of Oda TV, first findings suggest that the information was stored on the computers via "Trojan horses", "spam" e-mails or "viruses".

This became clear with a document entitled "National Media 2010" whose author is unknown, Günel explained. According to his clients, this file was saved on the computers in the cutting room which are being used by hundreds of different people. The document apparently lacks a digital signature.

"We erased records of hidden cameras"

As far as videos related to Cemil Çiçek and other ministers are concerned, Günel conceded that Pehlivan received such a video but that it was erased because it was contrary to the principles of Oda TV to publish voice records and footage recorded secretly. Prosecutor Zekeriya Öz did not insist on this issue either, Günel added.

The document "National Media 2010 was supposedly saved on the Oda TV computers via a virus from another computer. It is said to contain allegations that "the government is under the command of foreign intelligence units, the country's profit was used to bribe foreigners and that the Kemalists were going to be brought down by the Ergenekon operations".

Moreover, the document apparently puts forward that the broadcasts of Halk TV, Avrasya television and Cumhuriyet newspaper were insufficient and suggested that the government was being clamped. Yalçın and Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, the latter one as the current Chair of the main opposition party CHP, were going to buy Halk TV but could not agree on the price with the owners. They planned to establish a new channel called Ada TV, the document supposedly read.

Kılıçdaroğlu claimed that Prime Minister pulled the strings

Specialists stated that ten documents on the computers of Oda TV were all created on 28 September 2010 at 11.54 am and deleted at the same time.

Kılıçdaroğlu, Head of the Republican People's Party (CHP), assessed the arrest of journalist Yalçın as an "incident advanced upon the directive of the Chief Prosecution. And you know that Mr. Recep is the chief prosecutor", referring to Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. (EÇ/EÖ/VK)

Source: NTVmnsbc.com