Istanbul, April 10 () - The Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office has finalized the draft of an indictment arguing it has found “concrete evidence” that sympathizers of U.S.-based Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen were trying to form a “cemaat state” parallel to the state of the Republic of Turkey. It has also charged seven people for leaking information and documents to criminal organizations.
The chief public prosecutor claims that the seven arrested suspects were members of a “Pro-Fethullah Terror Organization” (Fetullahçı Terör Örgütü), led by arrested civil servant Kadir İnan and composed of four policemen and two civilians, read the indictment.
The suspects are accused of leaking important documents and information to criminal organizations for political purposes, the indictment stated, adding that crimes committed by this organization should be assessed from the dimension of “state order, public security and national security.”
Citing a report issued by the Police Department’s Anti-Terror Unit on the “Pro-Fethullah Terror Organization” that outlined the origins, structure, objectives and hierarchical composition of the group, as well as its efforts to build a “parallel state” through “political and terrorist pressure” as well as “media and propaganda tools,” the indictment recalled that the detailed report identified it as a “terrorist organization.”
There is concrete evidence about the existence of such a terror organization, which has been trying to reach its aims by deceiving the members of a religious community, the indictment stated, adding that a more detailed evaluation of its human resources, financial sources and the crimes it committed will be carried out after the completion of the investigation and with the opening of a court case.
Among the crimes cited in the indictment are the illegal wiretapping of radio communications of the police, leaking information to crime gangs about police operations in advance, and the “general collapse” of the Police Department.
Seyyit Akşit, one of the suspects who has long been working within key units of the Police Department, is accused of serving the organization and using his authority to delete evidence on some criminal gangs in return for money.
Akşit has denied some of allegations but admitted that he had fulfilled some of Kadir İnan’s requests, after the alleged head of the organization threatened him to kill his wife and children. İnan has refuted the claims and argued that it was Akşit who deceived him by stressing they were “doing everything for the state.”
