Financial transactions of former Brig. Gen. Gökhan Şahin Sönmezateş, who is being charged for setting up and commanding the assassination squad sent against President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on the night of July 15, 2016, has shown his close links to the Gülenist Terror Group (FETÖ) despite his constant denial during trial at a court in İzmir. An assassination team was sent to the hotel in Marmaris, a resort town on the Aegean coast, where the president and his family were staying on the coup night. Erdoğan escaped from the assassins just in the nick of time before flying to Istanbul from where he directed the anti-coup measures on the night and the following day.
During his court testimonies, Sönmezateş repeatedly claimed that he was no Gülenist, a term used for those loyal to fugitive cult leader Fetullah Gülen, who currently lives in exile in Pennsylvania, U.S. "I am a member of no cult. I never bowed before an imam or a hodja."
A detailed investigation by the Financial Crimes Investigation Board (MASAK) showed that the suspect transferred money to accounts owned by Gülen's lawyer Nurullah Albayrak. Moreover, Sönmezateş, who was the deputy chairman of the Air Forces Intelligence Department at the time of the coup attempt, was in charge of procurement and he made millions of liras worth of purchase from a firm where one of the chief coup suspects worked. Kemal Batmaz, who was captured near Akıncılar Air Base the day after the coup attempt, is accused of being one of the masterminds of the plot and of having received his orders directly from Gülen during his many flights to the U.S. with Adil Öksüz, who is believed to be Gülen's top coup plot operative and has been missing since his arrest the day after the coup attempt before mysteriously being released.
The MASAK report submitted to the court also showed that the Air Forces Intelligence Department transferred TL 1.7 million to the account of the same firm two days before the coup attempt.
Sönmezateş, who was arrested in Ankara before being sent to Muğla province to face charges for commanding the assassination squad, is also accused of attending a series of meetings held by Öksüz prior to the coup attempt.
Sönmezateş confessed to court that he was part of the coup attempt but refuses charges that he participated in the coup on orders of Gülen.
The MASAK report shows that Sönmezateş wired TL 5,000 to Gülen's lawyer Albayrak, who is currently a fugitive. Also, the Air Force Intelligence Department wired a total of TL 7.6 million to Milsoft Software Technologies, where Batmaz worked, between April 2014 and July 2016 in addition to the transfers two days before the coup attempt.
Milsoft was taken under state control after the coup attempt. One of its owners, Mehmet Sungur, is known to have close ties with both Sönmezateş and Öksüz. Sungur also transferred a significant amount of funds generated through shady property deals to FETÖ accounts in the U.S.
Sönmezateş also approved the transfer of TL 6.36 million from Air Forces Intelligence Department to Atesin Aeronautics in 2015 and 2016 and TL 1.55 million to Süpercom Information Technologies. Both companies are known for being linked to FETÖ.
