Turkish court merges Ergenekon, Council of State attack cases

Turkey’s Supreme Court of Appeals had ruled in December that links existed between the Ergenekon trial, in which a criminal gang is accused of trying to disrupt order and carry out a military coup, and the attack on the Council of State, May 17, 2006, when an armed lawyer entered the country’s highest administrative court killing a judge and injuring two others.

 

The court had ordered the lower court in Ankara to merge the cases.

 

In December, the appeals court quashed the assailant, Alparslan Aslan's life sentence, calling for his retrial as part of the coup case, along with five other men who were jailed for helping him in the attack.

 

Aslan had earlier confessed the attack was in retribution for court rulings that upheld a ban on women wearing the Islamic headscarf in universities and government offices.

 

Appearing in court for today’s decision, Aslan caused uproar shouting, "I will cut-down those attempting to interfere with the headscarf," as the judges left the courtroom to deliberate their ruling.

 

The so-called Ergenekon probe, which began in 2007 with discovery of 27 hand grenades in a shanty house in Istanbul's Umraniye district, has led to the discovery of several other weapons caches, and was initially hailed as a success, but has recently come under mounting criticism after prosecutors began targeting secularist journalists, academics and civic groups.

 

Critics accuse the government of using the investigation as an instrument to bully and silence ruling Justice and Development Party, or AKP, opponents.

 

GRENADE CONNECTION Â

The grenades discovered in a house in Istanbul reportedly belonged to a retired noncommissioned officer, and were later found to be the same as those used in attacks on Cumhuriyet daily’s Istanbul offices in 2006.

 

Those convicted of the May 17, 2006, assault on the Council of State were also found guilty of carrying out the attacks on Cumhuriyet, which caused only material damage.

 

As the Ergenekon investigation expanded, criminal organizations with key state links, have also become suspects in the case.

 

Veli Kucuk, a retired general and also an Ergenekon suspect, opposed to the court's decision and claimed that there was not sufficient evidence to merge the two cases.