The public prosecutor's office in Tarsus province has demanded aggravated life imprisonment sentences for four Turkish prosecutors and a gendarmerie officer for their alleged involvement in the Turkish Intelligence Service (MİT) trucks case.
The suspects allegedly violated Turkey's national security laws in 2014 when they stopped and searched MİT trucks in Adana province that were en route to Syria. The trucks were allegedly loaded with arms and ammunition.
The Tarsus Chief Public Prosecutor's Office prepared and sent an indictment of the five suspects to the Tarsus Second Criminal Court Friday, demanding an aggravated life imprisonment for Adana's former chief public prosecutor Süleyman Bağrıyanık, prosecutors Özcan Şişman, Aziz Takçı and Ahmet Karaca, and Adana's former provincial gendarmerie commander Özkan Çokay.
The suspects were accused of "attempting to overthrow the Turkish government by using force and violence or attempts to destroy the government's function totally or partly," and "getting intelligence over the politics and security of the state".
Earlier this year, the Turkish Supreme Board of Judges and Prosecutors (HSYK) suspended the prosecutors from duty. The board then announced that it decided to suspend prosecutors Bağrıyanık, Karaca, Takcı, Şişman and Yaşar Kavalcıklıoğlu until the investigation is completed.
In January 2014, trucks belonging to MİT carrying aid to Turkmens were stopped and intercepted by security forces upon the order of former Prosecutor Şişman. The supplies in the trucks were seized and MİT staffers were handcuffed before they were detained, which prompted the government to reform its intelligence laws in an effort to avoid such situations in the future. The governor of the province was informed about the incident in its latest phase, and many believe the operation was aimed at creating a political crisis via joint efforts by the Gülen Movement and anti-government media outlets that made the incident public, despite its highly confidential status.
Furthermore, an Istanbul court ruled in April for the arrest of 17 high-ranking military officers on charges of stopping and raiding trucks belonging to Turkey's National Intelligence Organization (MİT).
Sixteen of the 34 officers were reported to be tasked in the southern province of Adana where the MİT trucks were intercepted by security forces on the order of a prosecutor who allegedly acted on a tip that the trucks were full of ammunition to be delivered to a terrorist organization.
The operation that subsequently detained the MİT trucks is believed to be a plot hatched by the Gülen Movement in order to spark a crisis. As more details have been unveiled pertaining to the matter, the possibility that the operation was pre-planned and conducted by members of the Gülen Movement in the police and prosecutors in a purported attempt to defame the government, which it considers its foe, strengthened, prompting the prosecutor's office to investigate the incident.
