Turkish ex-intelligence agent questioned over alleged crime links

NTV web site, Istanbul
20 Jul 04

Faik Meral, a former MIT [National Intelligence Organization] employee
and the holder of the green passport [a special passport issued to
public officials], which was used by Alaattin Cakici [leader of a
crime syndicate in Turkey] in order to flee to Austria where he was
detained, has been arrested.

Meral, who was released on bail under a court order yesterday, was
detained again at Ataturk Airport before taking a flight to
Izmir. Meral was taken to the Organized Crimes Bureau and then
appeared in a High Criminal Court to re-examine the arrest warrant in
absentia issued against him and the court decided to remand him in
custody. Meral was later sent to Type-F Prison in Tekirdag.

The arrest warrant in absentia issued by Istanbul 11th High Criminal
Court against Meral for aiding and abetting a crime syndicate was put
into effect by Istanbul 12th High Criminal Court.

After completion of legal formalities in a building, which housed a
State Security Court before it was abolished, located in Besiktas
district, Meral, who was handcuffed, was escorted by two police
officers to a police car with a civil registration plate waiting in
front of the building.

Wearing sunglasses and refusing to answer questions put by reporters,
Meral was later taken to a type-F prison in Tekirdag.

In the testimony he gave in an emergency court he appeared in
yesterday, Meral said that his last meeting with Cakici, to whom he
was introduced by a high-level MIT official 10 to 15 years ago, took
place after Cakici was released last year.

Noting that he visited Cakici at his home, Meral said that he was
carrying his passport that day, but did not notice that he had lost it
as he did not travel abroad later.

Claiming that he had learned that Cakici was carrying his passport
when he was arrested while he was watching a newscast, Meral said that
he had been taken part in intelligence operations launched against the
Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia in Paris, but did
not take part in any operation in which Cakici was also involved.