Gülenist police helped clear teacher of indecent assault charges: testimonies

Seven Gülenist police officers helped a teacher working at a Gülen-affiliated private preparatory school clear his name of charges of taping under a university student's skirt in 2012, according to newly heard testimonies. The seven police officers were detained on Tuesday.

The prep-school chemistry teacher with initials F. Ç. faced allegations in 2012 of shooting a video of under a university student's skirt in a subway station in Turkey's western city of İzmir. The suspect, however, was cleared off all the charges after Gülen-affiliated police officers allegedly destroyed all evidence and arranged fabricated reports.

Three years after the incident, in 2015, the three police officers who were working in İzmir public security branch office at the time, where the evidence were destroyed, confessed witnessing the whole process, from the moment F. Ç. was detained to the point when he was released.

According to the statements of these police officers, F. Ç.'s keyholder, which he used as a camera, and images on his computers were destroyed, and fabricated police reports were arranged. Upon these statements, the university student and her friends were once again consulted for their testimony.

In the light of the newly obtained information, seven police officers were detained on Tuesday, including İzmir public security branch office's chief at the time, Özgür Duman, chief police officer, Nazmi, and commissar, Salih Cüneyt Yurdakul.

F. Ç was also once again detained early in the morning on Tuesday. F. Ç now works as a university instructor at Tunceli University and is married with one child.