Fourth indictment demands life sentence for 5 naval officers in Turkey

The daily said a considerable part of the indictment is allocated to a large cache of munitions discovered in İstanbul's Poyrazköy district in April. The new document demands life sentences for five naval officers -- Lt. Col. Ercan Kireçtepe, Lt. Col. Mustafa Turhan Ecevit, Maj. Eren Günay, Maj. Emre Onat and retired Maj. Levent Bektaş -- on charges of “attempting to destroy the Turkish Parliament and government.”

The indictment also demands lengthy prison terms for 11 other naval officers for “being members of a terrorist organization” and “possessing unlicensed weapons.”

During excavations conducted as part of the Ergenekon probe in April, a large cache of munitions was exposed on land owned by the İstek Foundation in İstanbul’s Poyrazköy district. The munitions are believed to have been buried underground to be used for planned assassinations of prominent figures in society.

Since the launch of the investigation into Ergenekon, which began in 2007, a wide range of weapons and munitions have been uncovered, buried underground or hidden underwater and at times abandoned on roadsides. The secret caches included anti-tank weapons, assault rifles, hand grenades, flame throwers and explosives. The Turkish Mechanical and Chemical Industry Corporation (MKE) confirmed that these weapons belonged to the military.

The new Ergenekon indictment demands up to 15 years in prison for Adm. Levent Görgeç, navy colonels Tayfun Duman, Şafak Yürekli, Mert Yanık, İbrahim Koray Özyurt, Dora Sungunay, Muharrem Naci Alacalı and Ali Türkşen and navy sergeant majors Halil Cura, Sadettin Doğan and Ferudun Arslan.

Also in April, police found a plot called the Cage Operation Action Plan on a CD seized during a raid of Bektaş’s office. The plot exposed Ergenekon’s plans to assassinate prominent figures of Turkey’s non-Muslim communities and place the blame for the killings on the Justice and Development Party (AK Party). The desired result was an increase in internal and external pressure on the party, leading to diminishing public support for the government.

/Today's Zaman/