Top court of appeals concludes reasons of 'Ergenekon' ruling

The Turkish Supreme Court of Appeals on April 23 concluded its reasoned decision for the "Ergenekon" coup plot case, which it overturned last week after ruling that the "Ergenekon Terror Organization," the target of the allegations, did not exist at all.

In its decision, the 16th Penal Chamber of the court said the ruling was overturned over the "rightful suspicion that emerged about the objectivity of the police officers who turned out to be the same individuals in each Ergenekon operation; the prosecutors for putting down reports to the indictment without conducting interrogations; and judges for condoning the illegal evidence."

Concerning a CD which was seized during one of the searches of a Workers' Party office which contained a drawing of the Supreme Court of Appeals building and an explanatory document, the decision said there was a lack of investigation, as the prosecutors did not probe the allegations that the documents were faxed between the Ankara and Istanbul bureaus of daily Taraf over a week before it was even found and published in the daily, on March 24, 2008. The decision also said that if there was a public case opened against Taraf, its dossier should have been investigated.    

The decision also stated a document within the same CD, which was accepted to have been prepared by an individual named Nusret Senem, contained information about suspect Ergün Poyraz attending a lunch meeting. However, despite Poyraz's defense that he was arrested on the date that the document was created and that the document was fake, a decision was given without taking this fact into account. 

The fact that denunciation letters were accepted without investigating their sources was also noted in the decision, which described them as...