SLEDGEHAMMER TRIAL

The Istanbul 11^th High Criminal Court dismissed the requests to release 162 detained defendants of the "Sledgehammer" Coup Trial pending trial. Among the detainees are former and active high rank military officials such as ret. General Çetin Doğan, ret. Gen. Halil İbrahim Fırtına, ret. Admiral Özden Örnek, ret. Gen. Şükrü Sarıışık or ret. Lieut. Gen. Engin Alan.

The court board decided for the rejection by majority vote whilst the preceding judge, Şeref Akçay, expressed his disagreement with the decision. The initial decision for the arrest and capture of 163 active and retired top rank military officers was given by the Istanbul 10^th High Criminal Court last week. The superior 11^th High Criminal Court announced that the decision was appropriate according to Article 100 of the Criminal Procedure Law (CMK) on "Arrest with a warrant".

"Defendants might conceal evidence"

The decision pointed to a strong suspicion of guilt related to all defendants affected by the decision. It was said that lots of new evidence was obtained from the Gölcük Fleet Command and that it was assumed that not all of the evidence has been collected yet.

Moreover, the decision mentioned the danger of obfuscation of evidence by the defendants and their possible attempt to obstruct the obtaining of new evidence. It was claimed that a judicial supervision of the defendants would be insufficient.

"Illness is no reason for exemption from arrest"

Some of the appeals to the arrest were filed because of health reasons but it was determined in the decision that according to the law, health conditions did not constitute an obstacle for arrest. Other appeals were made because the original decision did not mention "flight suspicion". Yet, the court decided that "appeals filed against reasons not mentioned in the court decision lack a legal basis".

Akçay: Imprisonment not "just"

President Judge Akçay indicated that the trial was opened upon the indictment on the attempt of committing a crime. "They did not actually execute any action", he said. He stated that photocopies of the evidence found in Gölcük had previously been obtained. Thus, it was not just to continue the detention by accepting the documents as new evidence.

"Sledghammer" ('Balyoz') is the name for a coup plotted by the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK). Apparently, a group of people mapped out a 5,000 pages strong plan from the end of 2002 till March 2003 called the "Sledgehammer Operation Plan. It was aimed at creating disorder in the country by bombings of mosques, crashing a Turkish jet plane and warplanes flying over the parliament, which should eventually lead to martial law and a coup d'état.

At the latest hearing of the trial on 11 February 2010, the Istanbul 10^th High Criminal Court had decided for the arrest of 163 defendants, 162 of whom appealed the decision via their lawyers subsequently. The appeals were forwarded to the Istanbul 11^th High Criminal Court to have it legal requirement assessed by the superior court. (EG/EÖ/VK)