Brigadier General Ahmet Hacıoğlu: “Back this up, there's no need for this”

Lieutenant Colonel Ertuğrul Terzi, in his defense before the Ankara 17th High Criminal Court, detailed how snipers positioned by Brigadier General Ahmet Hacıoğlu targeted civilians and how efforts were made to obstruct the submission of surrounding camera footage as evidence to the court. In the continuation of his statement, Terzi highlighted another instance of misconduct.

Camera Recordings Were Tampered With By Hacıoğlu Under The Pretext Of a “Timed Virüs”

It is stated that during the searches conducted on the floors following the evacuation of the headquarters, Brigadier General Hacıoğlu claimed to have received information that the coup plotters had planted a "timed virus" in the communication systems. To take control of the systems, he summoned Communication Colonel Özcan Şahin, who was described as trustworthy and stationed at the Beştepe Gendarmerie Training Command. It was noted that backups of all communication systems, including camera recordings, were made. 

In the continuation of his defense, Terzi requested the court to have the following questions answered by Hacıoğlu;

 - It is not clear from whom and how Brigadier General Hacıoğlu received this intelligence at a time when the suspects were sent to the police station by bus and no one was in the building. 

- Did whoever gave this intelligence want to tell Hacıoğlu that someone had planted a timed virus in the systems, essentially telling him to hurry up, there is no time, there is no need to wait for the legal process? 

- Although it is stated that the procedures were carried out in coordination with the prosecutor's office, there is no record of any consultation with the prosecutor's office. Likewise, it is not known under which assignment Colonel Özcan Şahin, who is alleged to have made the backup, performed this action, and his name and signature are not found in any minutes. 

- Furthermore, in such a crisis environment, according to what criteria did Hacıoğlu deem Colonel Şahin, whom he described as trustworthy, suitable for such a critical task?”

Brigadier General Ahmet Hacıoğlu: “Back this up, there's no need for this”

It was revealed that the "Crime Scene Investigation" task, which falls under the jurisdiction of the Gendarmerie Criminal Department or the Cyber Crime Department, was carried out by a team established by Hacıoğlu at the Gendarmerie Training Command, an institution with no judicial or administrative duties. It was recorded in the court minutes that the request for camera footage from the prosecutor's office, made on July 21, was only acted upon 10 days later, with the footage starting to be prepared on July 25 and delivered on July 26. On July 25, 2016, in the monitoring room of the camera footage at the headquarters, it was revealed that Hacıoğlu showed the footage to Fatih Karabağ, who was with him at the time, and instructed him to back up the footage by making distinctions such as “Back up this footage, don't back up that one, this is good, this is bad” and asked him not to back up some of the footage. It was claimed that the security cameras overlooking Alparslan Türkeş Boulevard in front of the headquarters were disabled, and it was determined that the recordings showing the events in front of the headquarters had been deleted.

The hero commander of July 15!

It was revealed that after the events, Hacıoğlu's photos were circulated in the media on the morning of July 16, under the guise of showing resistance against alleged coup soldiers. In the images, Hacıoğlu is seen running at the entrance gate with his sidearm in hand, even though the events had already ended by the morning of July 16.

Salim Sancak

Source

The defense of the defendant Ertuğrul Terzi, recorded via SEGBİS (the Audio and Visual Information System) in relation to the main case, was presented during the hearings held on January 31, 2019, and February 1, 2019, within the scope of the Ankara 17th High Criminal Court Case No. 2017/109.