‘SEARCH OF GENERALS’ HOMES LASTED ONLY MINUTES’
Today’s Zaman
Jan 13 2009
Turkey
The searches inside the homes of two senior generals detained in last
week’s police operations into the Ergenekon terrorist organization
were completed in nearly 10 minutes, sources at the scene have said.
Last week, 33 individuals, including retired senior generals Tuncer
Kılınc and Erdal Å~^enel, were detained as part of the ongoing
investigation into Ergenekon, whose members are accused of various
bombings, killings and other sensational unrest, apparently staged in
the hopes of triggering a coup d’etat against the government. The two
generals’ houses at a residential complex belonging to the military
were also searched during last week’s operations.
The two generals’ homes were not searched by the police but by
a military prosecutor and a civilian prosecutor from a higher
criminal court. The police were not allowed inside the buildings,
and the prosecutors were let in two and a half hours after their
arrival. Similarly, sources said, the police were not allowed into
the house of Lt. Col. Mustafa Dönmez, who turned himself in to the
police yesterday evening. Meanwhile, police have established that the
lieutenant colonel, who stayed a fugitive until yesterday evening,
was at the Land Forces Command at the time of the search of his
house. During last week’s searches, a cache of arms was found in the
lieutenant colonel’s other house in Ankara’s Sincan district. Nothing
was found in his house in the military residential complex.
The police, who had been monitoring Dönmez’s phone conversations
for months, also established that Dönmez received a phone call from
an unidentified individual who said, "Where are you? The police
are looking for you." Dönmez then replied, "OK, I’m on my way,"
but then vanished only to reappear yesterday. Dönmez was sent to
Metris Prison immediately, over charges of being in possession of
firearms registered to the military.
Police not allowed in
Five prosecutors were assigned by the Ankara Public Prosecutor’s
Office in last week’s operations. The home of former Supreme Court
of Appeals Chief Prosecutor Sabih Kanadoglu was also searched, but
the search could not start for hours because of the inadequate number
of prosecutors.
In the retired general suspects’ homes, the police arrived at 7 a.m.,
but Central Command allowed the search warrant to be issued only
at 9:30 a.m. Officials from Central Command also allowed only one
authorized prosecutor in. Nothing was found inside the house during
the nearly 10-minute searches, the prosecutors reported. The average
search time in last week’s operations in the houses of non-military
suspects was six hours.
Central Command looking for mole
Meanwhile, news stories about an alleged special order from Central
Command’s Special Protection Battalion Command to all military
residential complexes not to let police officers inside have caused
Central Command to start an investigation into the source of the
leak. Military sources say every military officer serving at the
command was questioned during the investigation and that nobody was
allowed outside during the weekend, one day after the news piece
appeared in the national press.
Ä°brahim Å~^ahin knew about police monitoring
Recent evidence suggests that Ä°brahim Å~^ahin, a former senior police
official who was the deputy head of the National Police Department’s
Special Operations Unit, knew about the police investigation about
him and that he was aware that his phone conversations were being
monitored. In a transcript of a phone conversation between him and
a military officer who is currently on duty in the army, Å~^ahin
says, "These uncles are after me," using slang to refer to National
Intelligence Organization (MÄ°T) agents.
Å~^ahin is accused of plotting to kill Armenian and Alevi leaders
based on documents found in his home. The documents showed that the
suspects have done extensive intelligence research on the targets
they planned to assassinate.
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