Turkish Armed Forces welcomes acquittal of its members

ANKARA

The Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) has welcomed the acquittal of its members in several cases, proving the “righteousness” in its “faith in the fair completion” of the trials, according to a statement.

“Cases which are called with different names among the public, along which it later emerged that fake evidence was used, and along which they deeply saddened members of the Turkish Armed Forces, have ended with acquittals, as had been expected,” the General Staff said in a written statement posted on its official website on Feb. 29, without strictly elaborating on the cases.

“As a requirement of respect for the rule of law and within the framework of the principle of a fair trial, our faith in the fair completion of the aforementioned trials has been preserved with the acquittal decisions that have been delivered. The righteousness of our faith and expectation in this direction has been proved again,” the General Staff said.

Last week, a court in the Aegean province of İzmir acquitted 357 suspects, including active duty soldiers, in the trial of a military espionage case where the defendants were accused of “keeping confidential military information and documents.” The case was filed in İzmir in 2012 and involved the trial of 357 people, including 49 regular soldiers, accused of possessing secret military information and documents. It was based on the 10th clause of Turkey’s Anti-Terror Law (TMK) and the controversial indictment was some 2,000 pages long.

In late January, an Istanbul court ruled on the acquittal of all 56 suspects in the re-trial of a military espionage case following a Constitutional Court decision, which said the rights of the suspects, whom included ranking soldiers, had been violated during the initial trial. The court pointed at irregularities during the evidence gathering processes and said it decided the suspects were not involved in the attributed crimes, such as spying, illegal wiretapping and damage to state security-linked documents.

“Within the framework of these decisions, we devoutly share the joy of our acquitted personnel, their families and members of the Turkish Armed Forces and wish them healthy and happy days,” the General Staff said in conclusion.