News reports about Altan brothers untrue, lawyers say
Two lawyers representing Ahmet and Mehmet Altan say the detention of their clients amounts to a “major legal tragedy”
20.09.2016
Ergin Cinmen and Veysel Ok, the lawyers representing best-selling novelist and journalist Ahmet Altan and his brother the economics professor Mehmet Altan, who were taken into police custody 11 days ago as part of the investigation into the July 15 coup attempt in Turkey on charges of “giving subliminal messages” on TV in support of the coup attempt, have released a statement denying truth to news reports that appeared in some Turkish news outlets on July 20.
In the statement, the lawyers have described the detention of their clients as a “major legal tragedy.” Regarding the allegations that several one-dollar notes were found in the home of Mehmet Altan, two of which have a serial number that starts with the letter F – which Turkish authorities have claimed were found in the person of many coup suspects – the lawyers said: “The red purse which allegedly contained a one-dollar bill that has a serial number that begins with ‘F’ is a women’s handbag owned by a family member of Mehmet Altan. The torn one-dollar bill that was located inside this purse was acquired during a family trip abroad which took place in the 1990s.”
The full statement from lawyers Ergin Cinmen and Veysel Ok follows:
“The situation of our clients Ahmet and Mehmet Altan amounts to a major legal tragedy. Our clients stand accused of colluding with the plotters of the July 15 coup attempt by way of subliminal methods. Based on this allegation, which defies the principles of both law and reason, they have separately been confined in a cramped 5-square meter detention cell together with three other people. The date of their court appearance is yet unknown.
As can be understood from the content of the investigation, there is no possibility of explaining the situation of our clients by legal rules. Our clients are being held only due to their critical views and to serve political intentions.
The obviousness of this lies not only in the completely unlawful and irrational accusations our clients face. Documents said to be part of the investigation file, which has been kept from us, have been served to some press outlet. Most recently, the newspapers Sabah, Yeni Şafak, Yeni Akit, Aydınlık, Hürriyet and the Anadolu News Agency have run stories reporting that a one-dollar bill that has a serial number beginning with the letter ‘F’ and a bank card issued by Bank Asya were found inside a red purse during the search of Mehmet Altan’s home. The same reports have included the information that five one-dollar bills, one of which also has a serial number that begins with ‘F’ were found in another part of Mehmet Altan’s house. These reports have also claimed that ‘a large number of videotapes featuring talks by Fethullah Gülen’ were found in Mehmet Altan’s study.
These news stories are deliberate and hugely distorted; and they have the purpose of creating untrue perceptions of our clients in the eyes of the public. Some of the information conveyed in these reports is deficient and distorted; while some of it is complete lies.
The red purse, which reportedly contained a one-dollar bill with a serial number that begins with ‘F’ is a women’s handbag that belongs to a family member of Mehmet Altan. The torn one-dollar bill that was located inside this purse was acquired during a family trip abroad, which took place in the 1990s.
Five other one-dollar bills, one of which has a serial number beginning with ‘F’, were found among several other 100, 20 or 5-dollar notes and Euro notes of various values inside a box where Mehmet Altan stored unspent foreign currency after visits abroad; these five one-dollar bills were selectively picked by the police specifically to create the impression that they were being held separately from the other notes in foreign currency in a special place. This is completely untrue.
According to official data from the Federal Reserve, the number of one-dollar bills in circulation as of 2015 was 11.4 billion. The Federal Reserve System has 12 regional locations, and the first-letter designation denotes which branch printed a dollar note. Currently there is an estimated number of at least one billion one-dollar notes with serial numbers that begin with F.
The Bank Asya-issued debit card found in the home of our client Mehmet Altan was given to him by the Fatih University — where our client taught for a semester in 2011 — to enable him to collect his payment in return for the lectures he taught there and was never used for any other purpose outside that period.
The Bank Asya card was also selectively picked and taken from among dozens of other bank cards belonging to Mehmet Altan, including ATM and credit cards issued by İş bank, Yapı Kredi, Garanti Bank and many other Turkish banks.
It is out of the question that any videotape featuring a partial or full sermon by Fethullah Gülen could be located in the home of Mehmet Altan. The videotapes seized by the police during the search of Mehmet Altan’s home are recordings from old television programs where Mehmet Altan has appeared as a guest speaker. Reports that tapes featuring talks by Fethullah Gülen were found in Mehmet Altan’s home are an egregious lie.
It appears that government departments under the office of the prosecutor conducting the investigation have served the probe file, which has been concealed from us, to some media outlets with the purpose of slandering the reputation of our clients in the eyes of the public. This situation directly calls for legal and criminal action against the prosecutor conducting the investigation.
We have felt it necessary to inform the public about our clients as explained in this statement.
Respectfully,
Lawyer Ergin Cinmen
Lawyer Veysel Ok’’