Imprisoned Turkish Colonel Dies
Staff Colonel Murat Özenalp, who received 16 years prison sentence in scope of the Balyoz (Sledgehammer) trial has lost his life due to a cerebral hemorrhage at the Mamak Prison, Ankara.
Murat Özenalp, a staff colonel in the Turkish Army who was imprisoned due to the Balyoz trial, had a cerebral hemorrhage while he was playing with his daughter during a free-visitation with his family, in the backyard of the Mamak Prison where he has been since 22 August 2011. Özenalp was taken to the Gulhane Military Medical Academy after his injury on 26 April 2014.
According to Müyesser Yıldız from Oda TV, Colonel Özenalp suddenly stumbled and fell to the ground while he was playing ball with his daughter at the Mamak Prison’s backyard. Yıldız is a journalist who frequently visits the Mamak Prison to monitor the situation of the imprisoned officers. He said, "There was an ambulance very close to the scene. I asked the staff of the prison why that ambulance is inside the prison. They told me that it’s for the urgent situations."
According to Yıldız’s statement, which is based on the ex
Murat Özenalp lost his life in the Gulhane Military Medical Academy on Thursday. He is the seventh death that comes from the Ergenekon and the Balyoz trials, following the deaths of Asia Chief of the Turkish National Intelligence Organization (MİT) Kaşif Kozioğlu (Silivri Prison), Kuddusi Okkır (Tekirdağ F-Type Prison), Journalist İlhan Selçuk, Prof Dr Uçkun Geray, Politician Engin Aydın and Colonel Ali Tatar.
Despite the well documented judicial indignities, Kemalists officers in the Turkish Armed Forces were tried and sentenced en masse during the Balyoz trials. The digital evidence has been the subject of continuous debate in the longest trial in the history of the Turkish Supreme Court. The defence lawyers argued that a large amount of the evidence is fake, and that conflicts exist in around 2000 separate issues. It has also been proven by observers from scientific organizations that the CDs presented as evidence for the trial were false, and some of the commanders who were accused of participating in the so called "coup meeting" were on overseas duty at the time.