An indictment prepared by the Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office seeks a jail sentence of between seven-and-a-half and 15 years for former prosecutor Aziz Takçı, one of four prosecutors who stopped National Intelligence Organization (MİT) trucks that were suspected of illegally transporting weapons to Syria in 2014.
The prosecutors were arrested in May 2015 on charges of attempting to topple the government.
The government harshly criticized the prosecutors and soldiers involved in the search of the MİT trucks, arguing that both the truck and its personnel were protected by MİT’s immunity, while the prosecutors said the trucks were making illegal arms shipments to rebel groups in Syria.
The indictment demands a merging of the trial of Takçı with an ongoing trial at the Supreme Court of Appeals’ 16th Criminal Chamber as a part of which he faces charges of illegally obtaining state secrets and political espionage.
In the indictment, it is also claimed that Takçı was using ByLock, a smart phone application which is the top communication tool among followers of the faith-based Gülen movement, according to the Turkish government.
Turkey experienced a military coup attempt on July 15 that killed over 240 people and wounded more than a thousand others. Immediately after the putsch, the Justice and Development Party (AKP) government along with President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan pinned the blame on the Gülen movement despite the lack of any evidence to that effect.