Turkish lawyers, police may face trial over MIT trucks

ANKARA 

Turkey’s supreme judicial authority on Thursday gave a green light for the prosecution of eight lawyers and police in connection with the searches of trucks belonging to the Turkish intelligence agency (MIT).

The Supreme Board of Judges and Prosecutors ruled that the five public prosecutors and three gendarmerie commanders could be prosecuted over the search of Syria-bound trucks in January 2014.

The trucks were stopped by paramilitary gendarmes searching for arms in southern Adana and Hatay provinces despite a national security law forbidding such searches.

At the time, Turkey's Interior Ministry denied the trucks had been carrying weaponry and said they were taking humanitarian aid to the Turkmen community in Syria.

Mehmet Yilmaz, the head of the board's second department, said the cases would be passed to prosecutors in the southern provinces to prepare an indictment in the next week.

Former chief prosecutor Suleyman Bagriyanik and prosecutors Ahmet Karaca, Aziz Takci, Ozcan Sisman and Yasar Kavalcioglu face potential trials on as yet unspecified charges.

Provincial gendarmerie commander Ozkan Cokay and district commanders Erdal Yilmaz and Kubilay Ayvaz also face prosecution.

"When condoning illicitness and illegal acts, we all have seen what happened in the recent past, like Ergenekon, Sledgehammer and espionage cases," Yilmaz said, referring to alleged attempts to overthrow the current government.

The prosecutors would be tried at Ankara’s Court of Cassation in the event of a prosecution, Yilmaz added.