One Lawyer Arrested, Six Military Personnel Released

Following operations in several provinces as part of the investigation into the clandestine ultranationalist Ergenekon  organisation, six military personnel (two soldiers and four military civil servants) who were taken into custody have been released.

Lawyer Serdar Öztürk, on the other hand, has been arrested for alleged membership in the Ergenekon organisation. He was sent to Istanbul's court in Beşiktaş on Sunday, 7 June.

Öztürk's lawyer Hasan Gürbüz said that his client had made use of his right to silence and that they would appeal against the arrest.

Speaking to journalists outside of the court, Gürbüz complained about extrajudicial practices. He called on the Istanbul Bar Association to act, as he believed that the current investigation has turned into a systematic intimidation campaign against lawyers.

Buried arms traced to army

According to the Star newspaper, a report by the Chemical Mechanical Institute (MKE), which produces arms and supplies the Turkish Armed Forces, shows that some of the weapons found buried on the land of an educational foundation in Poyrazköy, Istanbul, belonged the armed air, sea and ground forces, as well as the gendarmerie and special forces.

The MKE report has been sent to the prosecution. Of the hand grenades produced by MKE, four were handed to the air force command, and two to the gendarmerie command, it is said.

In addition, three of the loaded Light Anti-Tank Weapons (LAW) found are said to have been turned over to the gendarmerie command Five more loaded LAW arms were also produced by the MKE, but the series numbers have been erased.

Privacy rights violated

Meanwhile, Rıza Türmen, writer for the Milliyet newspaper and former judge of the European Court of Human Rights, has criticised the violation of privacy rights in the Ergenekon investigation. He referred to the confiscation of diaries of Tijen Mergen, member of Doğan Publication's Steering Board, which have not been returned to her since 14 April.

Türmen criticised the fact that the diaries have not been returned, that Mergen's computer was confiscated, and, when returned, only copies of the hard disk were returned. The former judge said that this represented a violation of Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights, dedicated to respect for people's private lives. (EÖ/AG)