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TURKISH PARTY LEADER CHARGED IN ANTI-GOVERNMENT PROBE: REPORT
Agence France Presse
March 24, 2008 Monday 8:45 AM GMT
The head of a minor Turkish party was jailed pending trial on Monday
for alleged links to a shadowy group supposedly plotting to topple
the government, the Anatolia news agency reported.
An Istanbul court had charged Dogu Perincek, leader of the once-Maoist
and currently ultra-nationalist Workers' Party (IP), of "being a
leader of a terrorist organisation" and "possessing classified state
information", it said.
Three other suspects -- journalists from a magazine and a television
station linked to the party -- were also charged, the agency said.
They were among 12 people arrested in dawn swoops on Friday as part
of a probe into an ultranationalist grouping called Ergenekon which
was supposedly planning to stage political unrest and assassinations
in a bid to discredit and eventually topple the government.
Those detained include veteran journalist Ilhan Selcuk and Kemal
Alemdaroglu, a former president of Istanbul University.
Selcuk, whose arrest led to accusations that the government was
trying to silence critics, was set free Sunday, along with five other
people. Alemdaroglu was released on Monday.
Both men were banned from leaving the country.
The probe into Ergenekon was launched in June after the discovery of
explosives in an Istanbul house.
Prosecutors have charged 39 other people in the case, along them
retired soldiers, journalists, lawyers and underworld figures.
Turkish newspapers, citing unnamed sources, say police are
investigating whether the suspects were involved in acts of political
violence aiming to discredit the ruling Justice and Development Party,
the off-shoot of a banned Islamist movement.
This would include the murders of ethnic Armenian journalist Hrant
Dink, the Italian Catholic priest Andrea Santoro and a senior judge
killed by a gunman who stormed into the country's top administrative
court, they said.
Reports claim some of the jailed suspects also planned to assassinate
2006 Nobel literature laureate Orhan Pamuk, a pro-government journalist
and several Kurdish politicians.
The media largely considers the probe as an onslaught against the "deep
state" -- a term used to describe members of the security forces acting
outside the law to preserve what they consider Turkey's interests.
Agence France Presse
March 24, 2008 Monday 8:45 AM GMT
The head of a minor Turkish party was jailed pending trial on Monday
for alleged links to a shadowy group supposedly plotting to topple
the government, the Anatolia news agency reported.
An Istanbul court had charged Dogu Perincek, leader of the once-Maoist
and currently ultra-nationalist Workers' Party (IP), of "being a
leader of a terrorist organisation" and "possessing classified state
information", it said.
Three other suspects -- journalists from a magazine and a television
station linked to the party -- were also charged, the agency said.
They were among 12 people arrested in dawn swoops on Friday as part
of a probe into an ultranationalist grouping called Ergenekon which
was supposedly planning to stage political unrest and assassinations
in a bid to discredit and eventually topple the government.
Those detained include veteran journalist Ilhan Selcuk and Kemal
Alemdaroglu, a former president of Istanbul University.
Selcuk, whose arrest led to accusations that the government was
trying to silence critics, was set free Sunday, along with five other
people. Alemdaroglu was released on Monday.
Both men were banned from leaving the country.
The probe into Ergenekon was launched in June after the discovery of
explosives in an Istanbul house.
Prosecutors have charged 39 other people in the case, along them
retired soldiers, journalists, lawyers and underworld figures.
Turkish newspapers, citing unnamed sources, say police are
investigating whether the suspects were involved in acts of political
violence aiming to discredit the ruling Justice and Development Party,
the off-shoot of a banned Islamist movement.
This would include the murders of ethnic Armenian journalist Hrant
Dink, the Italian Catholic priest Andrea Santoro and a senior judge
killed by a gunman who stormed into the country's top administrative
court, they said.
Reports claim some of the jailed suspects also planned to assassinate
2006 Nobel literature laureate Orhan Pamuk, a pro-government journalist
and several Kurdish politicians.
The media largely considers the probe as an onslaught against the "deep
state" -- a term used to describe members of the security forces acting
outside the law to preserve what they consider Turkey's interests.