Istanbul court hands CHP deputy Enis Berberoğlu 25 years jail time in case of intel trucks to Syria
An Istanbul court
sentenced main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) lawmaker Enis
Berberoğlu 25 years in prison on June 14 for “leaking state secrets” in the
Syria-bound intelligence trucks case, prompting a storm of reaction from the
CHP.
Berberoğlu, who became the first CHP lawmaker to be handed prison time, was accused of
providing daily Cumhuriyet with video purporting to show Turkey's intelligence
agency trucking weapons to Syria.
A Cumhuriyet report in May 2015 claimed that trucks allegedly
owned by the National Intelligence Agency (MİT) were found to contain weapons
and ammunition that were headed for Syria when they were stopped and searched
in southern Turkey in early 2014.
The Turkish government, however, accused followers of the
Gülen movement in the judiciary and security institutions of illegally ordering
the search, claiming that the trucks were carrying “humanitarian aid to
Turkmens” in the war-torn country.
The Istanbul 14th Court of Serious Crimes first gave a life
sentence to the CHPlawmaker on charges of “revealing the information of the
state that should stay secret for the purposes of political and military
spying.” But the court subsequently reduced the sentence to 25 years. The court
also said the lawmaker would be stripped of his political rights following the
announcement of the decision.
In his first remarks after the ruling, Berberoğlu said those
who created such a victimization should be ashamed of themselves.
Berberoğlu, who was present at the hearing, was taken to the
police station on the court premises to be imprisoned in Istanbul's Maltepe
district. Following the court's decision, the CHP held an emergency meeting, after which party Chairman Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu is expected to make an official statement. Kılıçdaroğlu
was also known to have called Berberoğlu on the phone following the court
ruling, telling him: “Don't be upset, we stand right behind you. We'll continue
our struggle until you get your freedom.”
Meanwhile, the party's deputies quit a plenary session in
parliament to protest Berberoğlu's arrest.
‘An intimidation attempt'
“The imprisonment of our lawmaker is a bitter example showing
that the judiciary is under the complete control of the executive organ,” CHP deputy chairman Engin Altay told reporters outside
Istanbul's Çağlayan courthouse.
“If judges make their decisions thinking ‘how can I please
the dictator, how will my rulings make the dictator look at me sympathetically
to the point that the dictator advances me [in my career]?' then God damn such
justice. This decision is a move to intimidate everyone who is not happy about
the AKP. It is also a move to intimidate a society that says ‘let democracy
march,'” Altay said.
Cumhuriyet's Ankara bureau chief, Erdem Gül, was also present at the
hearing on June 14, while the newspaper's former editor-in-chief, Can Dündar,
did not attend as he left for Europe last year.
“It is a decision to obstruct journalism,” Gül told reporters
outside the court.
The court ruled to separate Berberoğlu's file from that of
Dündar and Gül, who are accused of “intentionally and willfully aiding an armed
terror group.” The court, which did not render a verdict for Gül and Dündar,
saying their trials would continue.
Berberoğlu is a former journalist, who started his career at
business daily Dünya in 1981. In his long journalism career, Berberoğlu also
worked for Cumhuriyet, CNN Türk and Radikal. He also served as daily Hürriyet's
editor-in-chief from 2009 to 2014.
Berberoğlu was elected to the CHP caucus during an extraordinary meeting on Sept. 5-6,
2014. He was subsequently appointed as the party's vice-chairman responsible
for relations with the media on Sept. 14, 2014, by Kılıçdaroğlu.