A Turkish court ruled Wednesday that the illegal blocking of a convoy of trucks, belonging to the National Intelligence Organization (MİT), in 2014 was a plot planned and executed by the Gülenist Terror Group (FETÖ) and its infiltrators in the law enforcement agencies, in order to harm the Turkish state.
Earlier on June 28, the court handed all but two defendants, convicted of obtaining and revealing state secrets, sentences of at least two decades behind bars.
According to the 1,320-page ruling, the MİT trucks case was trumped up by FETÖ and directly targeted the government and MİT.
The terrorist group attempted to expose Turkey's activities in Syria to put the government in a difficult position in the international arena, said the ruling.
"The Turkish Republic has the right to take proportional preventative measures to defend itself in the face of the ongoing civil war in Syria," the ruling added. "No state can wait for disasters to happen," it said.
According to the detailed ruling, the MİT trucks case was far from isolated but in fact was an "organized act" carried out by proven members of FETÖ.
Almost all the defendants in the MİT truck case were intelligence agents or prosecutors who abused their positions in public institutions to carry out the planned act, said the ruling.
"It is necessary to accept that stopping the MİT trucks was a planned act of FETÖ," it said.
Back in January 2014, a group of gendarmerie officers affiliated with FETÖ stopped a convoy of MİT trucks on their way to Syria, despite government orders to let them pass.
A total of 54 people, including high-ranking military and judicial officials received lengthy prison terms in connection with the case.
On July 15, 2016, FETÖ and its U.S.-based leader Fetullah Gülen orchestrated a coup attempt in Turkey, killing 251 people and injuring nearly 2,200.
Ankara also accuses FETÖ of being behind a long-running campaign to overthrow the Turkish state through the infiltration of institutions, particularly the military, police and judiciary.
