THREE MORE CHARGED IN PROBE INTO ANTI-GOVERNMENT GANG: REPORT
Agence France Presse — English
March 30, 2008 Sunday 8:33 AM GMT
A Turkish court remanded two politicians and a journalist in custody
as part of an investigation into a shadowy anti-government network,
bringing the total number of those detained to 47, the Anatolia news
agency reported Sunday.
The suspects, charged by an Istanbul court late Saturday with
"possessing classified state documents", are Nusret Senem,
the secretary general of the Workers’ Party (IP); Hikmet Cicek,
the party’s media official, and Hayati Ozcan, a representative of a
television network which is partly owned by IP.
The arrrests came as part of an investigation into a suspected
ultra-nationalist grouping, called Ergenekon, which reportedly planned
to provoke political unrest and assassinations in a bid to discredit
and eventually topple the government.
The probe was launched in June after the discovery of explosives in
an Istanbul house.
Retired soldiers, journalists, lawyers, gangland figures and the IP’s
chairman are among those who have been charged so far.
Officials have made no statement on the investigation and prosecutors
are yet to draw up an indictment to detail the charges and start
a trial.
The Turkish media, citing unnamed sources, say police are investigating
whether the suspects were involved in acts of political violence
aiming to discredit the government.
This would include the murders of ethnic Armenian journalist Hrant
Dink, Italian Catholic priest Andrea Santoro and a senior judge,
they say.
Reports claim some of the detained suspects also planned to assassinate
2006 Nobel literature laureate Orhan Pamuk, a pro-government journalist
and several Kurdish politicians.
The media largely consider the probe as an onslaught against the "deep
state" — a term used to describe members of the security forces acting
outside the law to preserve what they consider Turkey’s best interests.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
