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COURT RELEASES COLONEL ARRESTED AS PART OF SLEDGEHAMMER COUP PROBE
Today's Zaman, Turkey
Oct 28 2011
A colonel who was jailed on suspected links to an alleged coup plot
codenamed Sledgehammer was released pending trial on Friday.
Col. Sencer BaÅ~_at was arrested last month for suspected links to
alleged coup documents seized from the Gölcuk Naval Command last year.
The documents belong to the Sledgehammer Security Operation Plan,
a suspected coup plan devised at a military gathering in 2003 that
allegedly sought to undermine the government in order to lay the
groundwork for a military take over.
BaÅ~_at's lawyers appealed the decision to arrest their client at the
Ä°stanbul 12th High Criminal Court, which on Friday ruled to release
the suspect due to a lack of evidence. He is the first active duty
military officer to be released during the course of the investigation.
In early December of last year, a large number of secret documents were
seized at the Gölcuk Naval Command by police officers. The documents
at the base are believed to have been compiled by a prostitution racket
accused of resorting to blackmail to extract vital state security
information from high-ranking military officers and senior bureaucrats
with the intention of selling it to foreign intelligence services. The
documents also contained records of the categorization of top state
figures according to their religious and political leanings as well
as documents suggesting what would happen after a military takeover.
From: Baghdasarian
Today's Zaman, Turkey
Oct 28 2011
A colonel who was jailed on suspected links to an alleged coup plot
codenamed Sledgehammer was released pending trial on Friday.
Col. Sencer BaÅ~_at was arrested last month for suspected links to
alleged coup documents seized from the Gölcuk Naval Command last year.
The documents belong to the Sledgehammer Security Operation Plan,
a suspected coup plan devised at a military gathering in 2003 that
allegedly sought to undermine the government in order to lay the
groundwork for a military take over.
BaÅ~_at's lawyers appealed the decision to arrest their client at the
Ä°stanbul 12th High Criminal Court, which on Friday ruled to release
the suspect due to a lack of evidence. He is the first active duty
military officer to be released during the course of the investigation.
In early December of last year, a large number of secret documents were
seized at the Gölcuk Naval Command by police officers. The documents
at the base are believed to have been compiled by a prostitution racket
accused of resorting to blackmail to extract vital state security
information from high-ranking military officers and senior bureaucrats
with the intention of selling it to foreign intelligence services. The
documents also contained records of the categorization of top state
figures according to their religious and political leanings as well
as documents suggesting what would happen after a military takeover.
From: Baghdasarian