New Arrests in Internet Memorandum Trial
Day by day, new people are being arrested in the scope of the so-called Internet Memorandum trial regarding "internet sites that were aimed at directing the public opinion". Rear Admiral Alaattin Sevim, one out of 14 defendants with an arrest warrant in their names, was arrested on Wednesday (24 August). One day before, civil servant Bülent Sarıkahya was detained.
Rear Admiral Sevim was made to retire at this year's annual High Military Council (YAŞ) in the beginning of August. Sevim said at court that he rejected the allegations put up against him. "I was not personally given any order or directive related to the actions subject to crime and I did not give correspondent orders or directives to anybody either", Sevim stated. He also claimed that he was not part of the chain of ranks as defined in the memorandum. "I did not meet at all Dursun Çiçek who is alleged to have prepared the document", Sevim asserted.
The court gave a comprehensive list of reasons for the decision to arrest Sevim, i.e. "the status of the existing evidence in the file; the quality and nature of the crimes of attempting to abolish the Turkish Parliament or prevent it from fulfilling its duty partially or completely and establishing and directing an armed terrorist organization; the content of the file; reasons for the strong suspicion that Alaattin Sevim committed the crimes imputed on him and the strong suspicion of having concealed or changed evidence". Therefore, the court held that a legal control was not sufficient and decided for Sevim's arrest according to Article 100/3 of the Criminal Procedure Law (CMK) (Grounds for Arrest with a Warrant).
A further five people have an arrest warrant in their name in the context of the Internet Memorandum trial: Land Forces Training and Doctrine Commander General Hüseyin Nusret Taşdeler, Lieutenant Generals Mehmet Eröz and İsmail Hakkı Pekin, Major General Mustafa Bakıcı and Ziya İlker Göktaş.
Arrest warrants related to the trial were issued about a total of 14 persons, eight of whom have been arrested so far: Ret. General Hasan Iğsız, Lieutenant General Mehmet Otuzbiroğlu, Major General Hıfzı Çubuklu, Colonels Sedat Özüer and Fuat Selvi, Ret. Colonels Gökçeoğlu and Hulusi Gülbahar and civil servant Bülent Sarıkahya.
Sarıkahya was arrested by the Istanbul 13th High Criminal Court on Tuesday (23 August). In his statement given the same day, the civil servant said that he was working as a system programmer at the MEBS Branch Directory of the Gülhane Military Medical Academy (GATA) Command.
Sarıkahya stated that he was a civil servant and only did what he was told. He rejected all charges. His lawyer emphasized, "If he had not fulfilled the duty was given, he would have constituted the offence of insubordination. My client saved what he was told to save and erased what he was told to erase". (YY/VK)