Indictment ready against Fethullah Gülen officers who oversaw graft probe
A prosecutor submitted an indictment to the İstanbul Public Prosecutor’s Office on Thursday against 69 people, including a number of police officers, who oversaw a major graft probe in 2013 and prominent Turkish Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen, for allegedly conspiring against the government officials who were suspects in the graft probe, turning one the country’s most comprehensive graft probes ever into an “anti-coup” investigation.
İstanbul Deputy Chief Public Prosecutor İsmail Uçar prepared the indictment against Gülen and Police Chief Yakup Saygılı, the former head of the İstanbul Police Department’s financial crimes unit, on charges of “establishing an armed terrorist organization,” “attempting to overthrow the government by force and violence” and “publicizing confidential state documents.”
The complainants in the indictment include President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, his son Bilal Erdoğan and son-in-law Berat Albayrak, Berat’s brother Serhat Albayrak, National Intelligence Organization (MİT) Undersecretary Hakan Fidan, Supreme Court of Appeals President İsmail Rüştü Cirit, Chief Ombudsman Nihat Ömeroğlu and Deputy Prime Minister Yalçın Akdoğan. Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu and a number of Cabinet ministers and deputies are also listed as victims in the indictment.
On Dec. 25, 2013, the İstanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office ordered the detention of 30 suspects, including a number of Justice and Development Party (AK Party)-affiliated figures and businessmen. However, the İstanbul Police Department, which saw an extensive purge of its top officers following the first wave of the graft probe on Dec. 17, 2013, did not comply with the order.
Shortly after the order, the prosecutors involved in the Dec. 25 investigation were removed from office on the grounds that they had abused their authority. The government assigned new prosecutors to the investigation in an apparent move to drop the charges against the corruption suspects.
Among the main suspects of the Dec. 25 investigation was Erdoğan’s son Bilal; businessmen Mehmet Cengiz, Mustafa Latif Topbaş and Yasin al-Qadi, a Saudi businessman who was an alleged al-Qaeda financier.
The launch of the Dec. 25 probe came following another investigation into a company, which coincidentally revealed corrupt relations among a number of businessmen and state figures.
According to the summary of proceedings prepared by the police in connection with the Dec. 25 investigation, al-Qadi was the main suspect of a total of 96 who were involved in the investigation. There were five groups, one of which was led by al-Qadi, the second by Topbaş, the third by Bilal Erdoğan, the fourth group by former Transportation Minister Binali Yıldırım and the fifth by businessman Orhan Cemal Kalyoncu.
It is alleged that these individuals intervened in the sales of valuable land and large tenders in a systematic way to make illicit profits. They also allegedly made a number of Cabinet ministers press ahead with certain legislation, when necessary, that would work in their favor. The suspects are alleged to have used code names for each other during conversations among themselves.
The AK Party and Erdoğan have accused sympathizers of the Gülen movement -- a civil society initiative inspired by the views of Gülen -- especially those in the police force and judiciary, of launching the graft probe as part of an attempt to overthrow the AK Party government. The Gülen movement, which is popularly known as the Hizmet movement, has rejected all the accusations and no concrete evidence against the movement has been produced against it by the government.
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