A court in Istanbul sentenced four people to prison terms of up to 13 years on Friday for helping the Gülenist Terror Group (FETÖ) in its plot against the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK).
The defendants include Mehmet Baransu, who is already imprisoned for other crimes related to the terrorist group, Yasemin Çongar, Ahmet Altan and Yıldıray Oğur. All were executives of the now-defunct Taraf newspaper and were accused of obtaining and disclosing confidential documents related to state security. Baransu was sentenced to 13 years while the others, who were released pending trial earlier, were sentenced to three years and four months in prison for obtaining confidential documents and acquitted of theft, forgery and for disclosing said documents. A separate trial will be held for Tuncay Opçin, another defendant who is at large.
Baransu was a rising journalist who made a name for himself at Taraf newspaper while Altan, Çongar and Oğur worked as columnists and executives before the Balyoz case made headlines in Turkey. Balyoz (Sledgehammer) was allegedly the name of a coup plot hatched by the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) in 2003. An indictment was filed when Taraf, using documents obtained by Baransu, published the details of the plan.
Subsequently, dozens of top military officers were convicted of plotting a coup and were imprisoned two years later. However, they were all acquitted in 2014 when it was discovered that the Balyoz case, which was based on forged documents, was in fact part of a plot by FETÖ to imprison generals and others deemed as obstacles to their infiltration of the TSK.
Baransu had famously handed prosecutors a suitcase full of “documents” linked to FETÖ regarding the alleged coup plot, essentially initiating the lawsuit.
Opçin, who is believed to be in the United States now, is accused of supplying documents to Baransu. FETÖ is accused of forging documents to implicate defendants in the Balyoz cases. Some documents used for the plot were modified versions of confidential documents.
The Taraf newspaper, which was accused of having ties with FETÖ, was shut down following the 2016 coup attempt by the terrorist group’s military infiltrators.
