Turkish court releases PKK suspect citing ‘Gülenist conspiracy’

ANKARA

A Turkish court has released a student convicted of allegedly planning to assassinate President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who was the prime minister at the time, after the incident was cited as a conspiracy of the Fethullahist Terrorist Organization (FETÖ) in an indictment prepared after the July 15 failed coup attempt, believed to have been masterminded by FETÖ. 

The student, İdris Nakcı, was sentenced to 20 years in prison for being a member of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) after it was alleged he had intended to assassinate Erdoğan with a bomb-laden minibus in 2007. His sentence was also approved by the Supreme Court of Appeals. 

The Ankara 11th Heavy Penal Court, which rejected Nakcı’s release demand three months ago, ruled for the release of the student citing the Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office’s FETÖ indictment on the incident being a “Gülenist conspiracy.” 

The police had announced they had seized a bomb-laden minibus in a parking lot on Sept. 11, 2007, and said the vehicle was going to be used to assassinate Erdoğan. However, the indictment revealed that the minibus was planted by FETÖ-linked police officers as part of a conspiracy.

According to the indictment, FETÖ-linked police officers set up a minibus with 580 kilograms of explosives in the eastern province of Van and left it in a parking lot in Istanbul’s Kurtuluş district. 

The police at the time blamed Nakcı for plotting an assassination and the court sentenced him to 20 years in prison. 

Faruk Duran, Nakcı’s lawyer whose previous appeals were rejected, made an appeal to the court after the FETÖ indictment cited a police conspiracy in the incident. Nakcı was released with a judicial control decision. 

The release decision could set an example for cases involving the Kurdistan Communities Union (KCK), an umbrella organization that includes the PKK, if there were other FETÖ “conspiracies” believed to be involved in their indictments, daily Cumhuriyet reported on Aug. 8, citing legal experts.