First Ergenekon Trial

Today, 3 August, the 102nd hearing of the first Ergenekon trial continued at the Istanbul 13th High Criminal Court at the Silivri Prison Site outside of the city.

The court case, which started on 20 October 2008, will be merged with the attacks on the State Council Attack in Ankara and bomb attacks on the Cumhuriyet Newspaper office.

Protest at merging decision

Ergün Güven from NTV reported that when the decision to merge the cases was announced, several defendants left the court room in protest: retired army captain Muzaffer Tekin, Workers' Party (İP) leader Doğu Perinçek and several others from the party.

Perinçek is on trial for "founding and leading the Ergenekon organisation" and "inciting armed revolution against the government". He faces life imprisonment.

The daily Taraf Newspaper reported yesterday (2 August) that Osman Yıldırım, a defendant in the previous State Council Attack case whose statements had led to the merging of the cases has been diagnosed as "in need of observation because of psychological problems" by an Ankara psychiatric unit.

Yıldırım said that the attacks on the State Council's 2nd Chamber and the Cumhuriyet Newspaper were instigated by Ergenekon defendants retired general Veli Küçük and Muzaffer Tekin, and that those two had arranged a meeting in Istanbul with State Council attacker Alparslan Arslan prior to the attack.

It is expected that Yıldırım will be examined by the Istanbul Forensic Medical Institute.

The first indictment, on which this case is based, spans 450 folders and is 2,455 pages long. It was prepared by Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutors Zekeriya Öz, Nihat Taşkın and Mehmet Ali Pekgüzel. (EÖ/AG)