Verdicts handed down

Espionage trial in Tyrol: Three Turks on trial

Symbolic image

(Bild: Christof Birbaumer/Kronen Zeitung)

In an espionage trial against three Turks living in Tyrol, the verdicts were handed down in court on Wednesday. The first defendant and the second defendant were sentenced to unconditional fines of 3,240 euros and 2,700 euros respectively for passing on information to the Turkish secret service MIT about compatriots living in this country. The third defendant, however, was acquitted.

They are alleged to have supplied the Turkish secret service MIT from Tyrol with information about compatriots staying in this country. Two of them were accused of using a ruse to lure men to Turkey, where they were interrogated by the secret service. The defendants pleaded not guilty on the first day of the trial on Monday.

Video transmitted
According to the indictment, the three alleged spies - two men and one woman - also transmitted a compromising video of a religious teacher working in Austria to the Turkish intelligence service Milli Istihbarat Teşkilatı. The information forwarded concerned members of the opposition Gülen movement and people close to the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).

The accused list concerned the alleged promise of a gold deal with which the two defendants had lured several men to Turkey and were subsequently interrogated by the secret service. If convicted, the three defendants face up to ten years in prison.

Clear links to the MIT
In his closing statement on Wednesday, the public prosecutor emphasized that clear links to the MIT could be deduced from the defendants' "way of life". "Contrary to what the defendants emphasized, there is still a connection to Turkey and to right-wing extremist movements there," the public prosecutor explained.

Precisely because the defendants appeared inconspicuous and - in the case of the first and second defendants - were rather poorly educated, the suspicion of espionage was obvious. "In order to spy across the board, you need cleaners and ordinary workers," he argued. The fact that the story is "nebulous" is in the spirit of the matter: "Secret services work covertly and are nebulous and difficult to grasp."

Contrary to what the defendants emphasized, there is still a connection to Turkey and right-wing extremist movements there.

Staatsanwalt vor Gericht

"No evidence"
The defendants' lawyers vehemently contradicted the statements of the public prosecutor. "We are definitely not dealing with the secret service and spies here," said the first defendant's defense lawyer. All witnesses regarding the "gold deal" had made it clear that they were "dealing with fraudsters", but certainly not with the MIT. The defense lawyer for the second defendant also agreed: "There is no evidence that anyone here is a member of the MIT or has anything to do with it," he said. The defense attorney for the third defendant sharpened this statement: "There is nothing at all left of the indictment". Late in the morning, the jury retired to deliberate.

The three defendants had denied all guilt on the first day of the trial on Monday. "I have nothing to do with MIT, know nothing about gold transactions and have not written a relevant three-hundred-page dossier with names," the first defendant told the jury. The dossier in question - which, according to the indictment, mainly contained the names of supporters of the Gülen movement - actually contained something completely different.

"Association disputes" in the mosque
The second defendant - the husband of the first defendant - also did not really want to comment on the gold deal that was used to lure two men to Turkey. He had spoken to one person about it, MIT, but had nothing to do with it. He had "actually forwarded" the video, but not to MIT, but with the intention that the mosque prayer leader shown on it "be removed from office".

The third defendant also denied any MIT connection and argued that the 300-page dossier was only about "club disputes" in the mosque. He had seen the video, but had "not forwarded it". In any case, this had been "scandalous talk of the town" independently of him. "After that, the prayer leader simply packed his bags and left", the man said.

The three witnesses - the two men involved in the promised gold deal and the prayer leader who can be seen on the video - were also unable to say anything about the secret service or any connections between the accused and it. Both men agreed that the men on the ground in Turkey were "much more likely to have been fraudsters than MIT". The prayer leader also emphasized that he had packed his bags because of "shame" and that there had been no pressure from Turkey.

The verdicts were not legally binding for the time being.