Top prosecutor rejects appeal in Balyoz case

ANKARA

The top prosecutor of the country has rejected an appeal asking for objection to the approval of convictions in the Balyoz (Sledgehammer) coup plan case.

The convicts’ lawyers had appealed to the Chief Prosecutor’s Office of the Supreme Court of Appeals upon reports suggesting Turkey’s science watchdog, TÜBİTAK, drafted a new report revealing key evidence in the Balyoz trial had been altered, Anadolu Agency reported on May 16.

In October 2013, the 9th Criminal Chamber of the Supreme Court of Appeals approved the convictions of 273 suspects in the case.

Upon TÜBİTAK’s report, lawyers asked for the top prosecutor to appeal to the General Assembly of Criminal Chambers of the Supreme Court for objecting the convictions.

“The hard drive which is claimed to have been fake does not influence the validity of other the evidence,” the top prosecutor’s office said in its decision of refusal, the Agency reported.

In late January, experts from TÜBİTAK released a report which said that the date and time of key files on a hard drive found during searches conducted in December 2010 at the Gölcük Navy Command were altered.

The files on the hard drive, known as “hard drive number five,” were one of the foundations of the coup plot charges in the Balyoz trial indictments.

During the Balyoz trial, separate reports from Naval and Air Force experts also indicated the hard drive was modified, but their assessments were dismissed by the court.