A criminal court in Ankara sentenced Mustafa Tanrıverdi, former manager of Turkey's major state-run arms producer Mechanical and Chemical Industry Corporation (MKE)'s Kırıkkale factory, to 12 years and 8 month in prison on Thursday for trying to sell the project plans of Turkey's first domestically made infantry rifle.
Mustafa Tanrıverdi was previously detained on charges of 'espionage', and later arrested for "exploiting state secrets" and "disloyalty to the state" in April.
Informants told the police that Tanrıverdi was trying to sell them designs and production plans for the MP-5 rifle and MPT-76 infantry rifle, also referred to as the National Infantry Rifle, the country's first locally made rifle that recently began being produced.
Undercover police then organized an elaborate operation and accompanied an official from the U.S.-based firm pretending to be interested buyers, upon which the suspect arrived with two USB memory sticks, one with MP-5 data and the other with MPT-76 infantry rifle data.
Tanrıverdi sold them to the company official for TL 200,000 ($70,236) and $300,000, respectively. Officers captured Tanrıverdi as he left the restaurant with the money.
The MPT-76, which contains a mechanism modeled after the M16 rifle, is the first infantry rifle designed and manufactured entirely in Turkey. A test batch was produced in 2014, and it is scheduled to start mass production this year.
The rifle's production started after it passed international standards test for durability and reliability. The rifle features a 7.62 mm caliber barrel, features a 20-bullet magazine, has a range of 600 meters and is usable in temperatures between minus 40 degrees Celsius and 65 degrees Celsius as well as underwater and in muddy conditions.
The research and development phase of the National Infantry Rifle alone cost the Defense Ministry $22 million.
