The Constitutional Court yesterday rejected the appeal of Enis Berberoğlu, an Istanbul deputy from the Republican People's Party (CHP) who was sentenced to five years in a spying case.
Berberoğlu filed an appeal to the Constitutional Court on June 23, 2017 through his lawyer, to reverse his sentence. The Constitutional Court rejected his appeal, citing his role in leaking secret information to Can Dündar, a fugitive journalist, about the National Intelligence Organization (MİT), in a case publicly known as the MİT truck case.
In February, the CHP deputy was sentenced to five years and 10 months by the 2nd Penal Department of the Istanbul Regional Court of Justice after it found him guilty of disclosing secret state documents related to the MİT truck case.
Berberoğlu was accused of supplying confidential information regarding the country's intelligence service to two journalists, Can Dündar and Erdem Gül, who were both charged with willfully aiding a terrorist group without being a member. On July 16, Gül was acquitted; however, Dündar remains a fugitive in the case.
Istanbul's 14th Heavy Penal Court initially sentenced Berberoğlu to 25 years in prison, but his case was later transferred to the Istanbul Regional Court of Justice.
In January 2014, trucks belonging to the MİT carrying aid to northern Syria, where Turkmens had been exposed to heavy airstrikes and attacks from the Bashar Assad regime, were intercepted by security forces on orders of former Adana Public Prosecutor Özcan Şişman and Brig. Gen. Hamza Celepoğlu.
The supplies in the trucks were seized and MİT agents were handcuffed before being detained. The case stunned the nation as it was the first time that the military explicitly intervened with the work of the intelligence agency. The operation was conducted hurriedly, and the governor of the province was informed about the incident in its latest phase.
It was later revealed that the raid was a plot by the Gülenist Terror Group (FETÖ) to embarrass and discredit the government via its followers who had infiltrated the military and judiciary.