Parliament, Defense Ministry at odds over military report on hypnosis of soldiers
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Oct 29, 2010 - 12:00 am GMT+3
by Oct 29, 2010 12:00 am
Zafer Üskül, the head of the parliamentary Commission on Human Rights, has lashed out at the Defense Ministry for refusing to forward a military report to the commission which concerns three noncommissioned officers who were interrogated while under the influence of drugs and hypnosis last year after being detained on suspicion of leaking classified information.
Üskül said the commission asked for the report from the Kayseri 2nd Air Maintenance Command a few months ago, but the Defense Ministry did not allow the command to send the report, arguing that it constitutes a "state secret." In response, Üskül sent a notice to the ministry in which he said Parliament cannot be kept from exercising from its regulatory powers due to a "state secret" or "economic secret." "For this reason, I urgently demand that the ministry send the hypnosis report to the parliamentary Commission on Human Rights," Üskül added.
In June, a forensic report confirmed that noncommissioned officers Ali Balta, Orhan Güleç and İsmail Dağ were drugged and hypnotized during an interrogation by retired Lt. Col. Gürol Doğan. The three NCOs were detained in early March of last year upon the orders of Kayseri Garrison Commander Maj. Gen. Rıdvan Ulugüler and were interrogated by Doğan for 10 days following their detention. The detentions became public when the soldiers' families, after failing to receive any word from the military, turned to the Kayseri Court of First Instance to find out where the soldiers were located.
Doğan was arrested and tried and was sentenced to seven-and-a-half years in prison.
The lawyer for the NCOs recently petitioned the parliamentary Commission on Human Rights to examine the illegal interrogation under drugs and hypnosis. The commission asked the Kayseri command to send it the hypnosis report, but the Defense Ministry refused to allow it to do so. According to the ministry, the report constitutes a state secret.
Üskül told reporters that many institutions have thus far sent the parliamentary commission secret or confidential reports in the past.
"The failure to send the commission a required document may prevent Parliament from fulfilling its responsibilities. Parliament cannot be prohibited from fulfilling its responsibilities due to such reasons as state secrets," he noted.
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