A Turkish court has acquitted the former head of Turkey’s Student Selection and Placement Center (ÖSYM) of terrorism, which he was charged with due to alleged links to the Gülen movement, giving him a suspended sentence instead for abuse of public duty, local media reported on Thursday.
The Turkish government accuses the Gülen movement, inspired by the views of Islamic cleric Fethullah Gülen, of masterminding a failed coup on July 15, 2016 and labels it as a terrorist organization. Gülen and his movement strongly deny any involvement in the failed putsch and any terrorist activity.
According to the indictment drafted by the Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office in late 2019, former ÖSYM president Ali Demir was facing more than 18 years in prison on charges of “membership in a terrorist organization” and “abuse of public duty.”
Demir, who was not held in pretrial detention during his trial, was accused of rigging student exams.
Some critics claimed the Gülen movement was cheating in the exams, as it had been successful in the education sector, dominating the university entrance exams and enrolling students in colleges affiliated with the movement.
Only one incident of rigging the central exam has been the subject of investigation and trial.
According to Turkish media reports, the Ankara 2nd High Criminal Court on Thursday acquitted Demir of terrorism and issued a suspended sentence for abuse of public duty.
Demir was appointed president of the ÖSYM in 2010 by then-prime minister and current president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s government, and a year after that he was accused of rigging student exams.
He was removed from office in 2015 by the government.
Following the coup attempt, the Turkish government declared a state of emergency and carried out a massive purge of state institutions under the pretext of an anti-coup fight. More than 130,000 public servants were summarily removed from their jobs for alleged membership in or relationships with “terrorist organizations” by emergency decree-laws subject to neither judicial nor parliamentary scrutiny.
In addition to the thousands who were jailed, scores of other Gülen movement followers had to flee Turkey to avoid the government crackdown.