Turkish prosecutor says Turkish officials involved in supplying arms to radical Syrian Islamist groups,

Turkish officials, including intelligence agency personnel, have been involved in the supply of weapons and ammunition to radical Syrian Islamist groups, particularly Ahrar ash-Sham, according to the team of prosecutors who previously carried out investigations into terrorist activities, including the infamous intervention into the weapon-laden trucks headed for Syria in January 2014. Report ZAMAN

Prosecutor Özcan Şişman, who was one of the four prosecutors jailed last month for intercepting trucks carrying arms into Syria, in 2014, testified in his defense to the Tarsus 2nd High Criminal Court in May that he had, on several occasions, spotted Turkish officials facilitating the flow of jihadists into Syria. Şişman also stated that a string of bombings within Turkey and on the Syrian border, as well as the transfer of arms into territory held by radical Islamist groups, were among the activities undertaken by the Turkish personnel, according to a report by Arzu Yıldız for the online news portal grihat.com.tr.

In January 2014, Adana prosecutor Özcan Şişman went to Hatay, a neighboring province that sits on the border with Syria, after a truck that was suspected of carrying arms into Syria was stopped. Two weeks later, another prosecutor, Aziz Takçı, intercepted three trucks that were carrying arms and medical supplies to Syria. The trucks were later found to be owned by the Turkey’s National Intelligence Organization (MİT).

Then-Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan publicly criticized the prosecutors and urged the authorities to arrest those who were involved in stopping the trucks. Erdoğan, former President Abdullah Gül and Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu described the trucks as a “state secret” and claimed that they were carrying baby formula and food to Syrian Turkmens.

Şişman said a crime committed by a state cannot be classified as a “state secret.” He argued: “It is a terror crime committed by officials.” He said only police and gendarmerie could carry weapons, not MİT.

Former Adana Chief Public Prosecutor Süleyman Bağrıyanık, former Adana Deputy Chief Public Prosecutor Ahmet Karaca, Adana Prosecutors Aziz Takçı and Özcan Şişman and former Adana provincial gendarmerie commander Col. Özkan Çokay are facing charges ranging from espionage to membership in a terrorist organization to attempt “to topple or incapacitate the Turkish government.”

Şişman had been operating in border areas with Syria and was involved in many investigations into terrorist activities that popped up as a result of the Syrian civil war. Şişman said in his testimony that he detected Turkish public officials aiding a number of criminals ferrying arms and jihadists into Syria.

Ahrar ash Sham hasn’t publicly declared its affinity with al-Qaeda, but US officials said a number of al-Qaeda operatives have influenced the radical group after joining them. It is not part of the Free Syrian Army and most Western nations consider it a radical jihadist group.

Şişman: I wanted to avoid repeat of Reyhanlı

Şişman said previous incidents and investigations convinced him that any failure to intercept such a large-scale arms transfer could result in the deaths of dozens of Turkish people, as it had in Reyhanlı in 2013.

He noted that two suspects who stood trial as part of an investigation into the twin bombings in Reyhanlı, which claimed the lives of 53 people confessed that a Turkish official called H.T. had pushed them to mastermind the attack. H.T. was also accused of facilitating the entry of terrorists who killed three people including two police officers, in Niğde, in March 2014.

Republican People’s Party (CHP) former deputy Ali Özgündüz wrote on his social media account on Thursday that he had given a parliamentary questionnaire to the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) regarding H.T., but received no reply.

In February 2013, the prosecutor said the investigation found that a MİT official purchased SIM cards for four suspects who orchestrated the car bombing attacks in Cilvegözü, a Turkish border town. At least 14 people were killed in the attack, including several Turkish nationals.

Yaşar Kavalcıoğlu: MİT personnel tried to coerce gendarmerie

Yaşar Kavalcıoğlu, the first prosecutor at the scene of the three trucks intercepted in Hatay’s Kırıkhan district, on Jan 1, 2014, said that there had been a squabble between the MİT agents accompanying the trucks and the gendarmerie forces sent to the scene by the prosecutors.

Kavalcıoğlu said in his defense statement, which he sent to the Supreme Council of Judges and Prosecutors (HSYK) after the four prosecutors involved with the case were detained and arrested in May, that by the time he had reached the scene of crime, the gendarmerie were in a near stand-off with the MİT agents.

The gendarmerie officers told Kavalcıoğlu that the MİT agents had tried to convince them to switch the trailer of the trucks with empty ones, and had threatened to fight after the gendarmerie replied negatively. Kavalcıoğlu then states that he phoned Özcan Şişman, and asked if he could come and take over the investigation as it was his jurisdiction.

Investigation file manipulated to frame prosecutors

Süleyman Bağrıyanık said in his defense statement to the court that evidence proving his innocence was intentionally not included by the HSYK chief inspector, adding that the investigation against him amount to a campaign to frame him.

He said that he was being accused of acting together with the Adana deputy chief public prosecutor and the prosecutors who intercepted the trucks despite any evidence, by noting he did not hold any phone conversations with the prosecutors who intercepted the trucks, except on one occasion when Şişman called him upon the order of Kenan İpek, then-undersecretary to the Justice Minister.

Bağrıyanık maintained that he was not given the chance to disprove the allegation that he was in contact with the prosecutors who intercepted the trucks, as his request from the chief inspector to include the Historical Traffic Search (HTS) records, which show all mobile phone usage within the range of a specific cell tower, featuring his phone conversations with his colleagues including prosecutors and the deputy chief public prosecutor, was not met.

Bağrıyanık said that İpek called him several times, ordering him to halt the search of the trucks and remove the prosecutor conducting the search.

Saying that he disobeyed the order of Undersecretary İpek, Bağrıyanık added that he would have acted in accordance with İpek’s order if he had sent a document to him showing that the trucks’ were indeed used as part of MİT duty. He also lashed out at İpek for giving instructions to a jurist although the law prohibits third parties to sway the judgments of jurists.

“What I was supposed to do? Should I have acted [in accordance with İpek’s instruction] by saying ‘Yes, sir’ and removing the prosecutor from the file. Since when have administrators been informing the jurists on what constitutes a crime? If the search was against the law, the procedure is already set out in the Code on Criminal Procedure (CMK). Judiciary determines what constitutes an unlawful act, the administrators do not have such an authority” said Bağrıyanık.

Prosecutor Takçı: Trucks were full to the brim with weapons

Aziz Takçı, one of the four prosecutors involved in an investigation of the trucks belonging to MİT, which were allegedly carrying weapons to radical groups in Syria, testified in his defense to the Tarsus 2nd High Criminal Court regarding the investigation of the truck that the trucks were filled to the brim with weapons.

Prosecutor Takçı was one of the four prosecutors jailed for intercepting trucks carrying arms into Syria. Describing the events that unfolded on Jan. 19, 2014, when trucks later found to belong to MİT were stopped in the Ceyhan district of Turkey’s Adana province en route to Syria, Takçı said: “When I went to the scene there were two trucks. A few stubbly bearded men, claiming to be MİT operatives, were shouting, swearing. As I had gone to the scene of the search, I had to look at what was there. [The trucks] were full to the brim with weapons… 155mm [howitzer] shells, anti-aircraft munitions; I also saw munitions of different types and sizes.”

Turkey has wanted Syrian President Bashar al-Assad removed from power ever since an uprising that started at the end of 2011 turned into a fully fledged civil war in the neighboring country. Assad is a member of the Nusayri (Alawite) sect, an offshoot of Shiite Islam, whose members are a minority in both Syria and Turkey. However, Turkey has been accused of arming radical elements within Syria such as the Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIL) and Ahrar ash-Sham.

Ex-prosecutor Karaca: Interception of trucks carrying arms was legal

Former Adana Deputy Chief Public Prosecutor Ahmet Karaca said in his defense that everything was done according to legal procedure. He also denied the charge brought against him of revealing state secrets.

Karaca said that as the deputy chief public prosecutor he had no authority to interfere in any prosecutor’s work and vouched for the investigations pursued by four public prosecutors who worked under his authority.

He said his mandate under the law was to oversee prosecutors in his office, taking on administrative duties such as assigning cases, preparing duty rosters and managing the office. He said his role didn’t allow him to legally interfere in any investigation pursued by independent prosecutors.

Karaca said he did not even know what a report drafted by the government-controlled HSYK chief inspector said about him because he was not allowed to see the case file with the supposed criminal evidence. When he asked the chief inspector to share the documents with him so he could file his defense, Karaca said the inspector cynically told him that the documents would not be relevant to his defense.

According to the leaked video footage of the hearing, he asked the presiding judge: “How can I defend myself if I am not allowed to examine the evidence?”