Indictment on "Action Plan" Accepted

The Istanbul 13th High Criminal Court has accepted the indictment on the "Action Plan against Reactionary Forces". The prosecution has demanded that the case be merged with the Ergenekon case.

The first hearing of the case will be on 28 June in Silivri, outside of Istanbul. The application for a merge will be considered later. 

In the indictment, seven people are accused, among them former Greater Istanbul mayor and İSTEK education foundation board manager Bedrettin Dalan and Navy Colonel Dursun Çiçek.

Sentences

Dalan is accused of "founding or leading an armed terrorrist group" and "encouraging the overthrow of the government or preventing it from carrying out its duties." He faces a life sentence without parole as well as a sentence of 15 to 22.5 years.

Çiçek also faces a life sentence without parole and another sentence of 7.5 to 15 years.

Five more defendants

The other defendants in the 184-page indictment are lawyer Serdar Öztürk, who is already a defendant in custody in the Ergenekon trial, Ufuk Akkaya, the intelligence chef of the Ulusal channel, Mehmet Deniz Yıldırım, the editor-in-chief of the Aydın magazine (already in custody), İlhami Ümit Handan, Dalan's secretary, and Özel Yılmaz, the Izmir regional head of the Turkish secret service, MIT.

 The prosecution related its accusations both to the previous indictments on the illegal Ergenekon organisation and indictments on a weapons find in Poyrazköy, Istanbul and the "Cage" case.

Revelations about an "Action Plan against Reactionary Forces" were first published in the Taraf newspaper on 12 June 2009. It was alleged that illegal means were to be used to undermine the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and the religious Fethullah Gülen movement.

There are 385 complainants in the case, including the AKP, and members of the now-closed pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party (DTP), Ahmet Türk and Aysel Tuğluk.

Dalan's involvement

It is claimed that Dalan, who has been abroad for a year, had the duty of wooing high-level businesspeople through the media and political manoeuvring. He is said to have had meetings with media institution owners and businesspeople, as well as with Ergenekon members Levent Ersöz, Hasan Atilla Uğur and İsmail Yıldız, all of whom are said to have plaid an active role in coup plans.

Dalan is also suspected of having supported the movement financially and of having dealt with international relations for the organisation's strategies. He is said to have been the candidate for Prime Minister for the government to be formed after a coup. (TK/AG)