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Turkish ex-legislator receives suspended
sentence for aiding criminal gang
14.11.2006 |
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ANKARA, Turkey,
November 13,-- A former lawmaker who was at the
center of a major corruption scandal in Turkey 10
years ago was given a one-year suspended sentence on
Monday for aiding a criminal gang.
Sedat Bucak, a legislator until 2002, was the only
survivor of a car crash in 1996 that set off
investigations and revealed cozy and profitable
alliances between state officials and mobsters.
Passengers in the wrecked Mercedes included
Istanbul's No. 2 police officer and a fugitive hit
man. Bucak first went on trial in 2003 on charges of
aiding a criminal gang after he lost his seat in
parliament, which had shielded him from prosecution.
The court acquitted him of the charge, but a higher
court overturned the conviction and ordered a new
trial.
An Istanbul court, concluding the retrial Monday,
sentenced Bucak to one year and 15 days in prison,
but suspended the term. Bucak would only be
imprisoned if he commits another crime.
Investigations into the scandal, dubbed "Susurluk"
after the town where the crash occurred, confirmed
suspicions that officials were using
ultranationalist thugs and criminals to intimidate
or kill perceived enemies of the state.
A 1997 government report accused political and
police officials of hiring hit men to target Kurdish
rebels, journalists and anti-Turkish Armenian
activists since the 1980s.
Many participants in the dirty war eventually joined
Mafia-style groups to win state contracts and other
concessions, the report said.
One of the assassins reportedly on Turkey's payroll
was Abdullah Catli, one of three people who died in
the 1996 car accident.
Bucak was a clan chieftain-turned-legislator whose
family once ran a private army of 2,000
government-armed village guards fighting Kurdish
rebels in southeastern Turkey (Kurdistan-Turkey).
AP
The use of the term "Kurdistan" is vigorously
rejected due to its alleged political implications
by the Republic of Turkey, which does not recognize
the existence of a "Turkish Kurdistan".
Others estimate as many as 40 million Kurds live in
Big Kurdistan (Iraq, Turkey, Syria, Iran, Armenia),
which covers an area as big as France, about half of
all Kurds which estimate to 20 million live in
Turkey.
The Kurdish flag flown officially in Iraqi Kurdistan but
unofficially flown by Kurds in Armenia. The flag is
banned in Iran, Syria, and Turkey where flying it is
a criminal offence"
Southeastern Turkey:
North Kurdistan (
Kurdistan-Turkey) wikipedia
First world war
massacres | Related
issue:
Armenian Genocide by Turkish Muslims against
Christians
Turkey faces international pressure to recognise
that more than 1 million Armenians were massacred
during a 1915 campaign of ethnic cleansing by
Ottoman Turks. Turkish officials claim that most
deaths were caused by hunger and disease.
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