Prosecutor who called intel chief to testify arrested over Gülen links in Istanbul

ISTANBUL

A prosecutor who called on National Intelligence Agency (MİT) Chief Hakan Fidan to provide testimony in 2012 has been arrested on charges of links to the Fethullahist Terrorist Organization (FETÖ), which is widely believed to have masterminded the July 2016 failed coup attempt. 

Sadrettin Sarıkaya was apprehended in a house in Istanbul, along with judge Dursun Ali Gündoğdu, late on Feb. 18.

Sarıkaya, Gündoğdu and former prosecutor Adnan Çimen, who were all dismissed from their posts over their links to the movement of the U.S.-based preacher Fethullah Gülen, testified at the Bakırköy 16th Heavy Penal Court for nearly four hours through the voice and video informatics system (SEGBİS).

The court ordered the trio’s arrest for “being members of an armed terrorist organization,” “attempting to remove or harm the actions of the government of the Turkish Republic” and “attempting to remove the constitutional order.” 

The court also ruled that the suspects posed a flight risk.

Sarıkaya sought to summon Fidan and three other top MİT officials to testify on Feb. 7, 2012, over allegations stemming from MİT discussions with the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), known as the Oslo talks. 

The meetings were conducted between 2009 and 2011 in Oslo in the hopes of finding a peaceful solution to the Kurdish issue. 

The deputy undersecretary of the Prime Ministry at the time, Fidan, his colleagues and three members of the European wing of the PKK, Mustafa Karasu, Sabri Ok and Zübeyir Aydar, attended the meetings, according to reports.

Fidan became the head of MİT in May 2010.

The talks presaged the government’s resolution process, which ultimately failed in summer 2015.