Police seizes draft book of jailed journalist

A Turkish court has ordered the seizure of copies of a draft book about Islamist infiltration of the police by a journalist recently put behind bars, Anatolia news agency reported Thursday.

ISTANBUL- The move came amid already simmering criticism that probes into a series of alleged plots to oust the Islamist-rooted Justice and Development Party (AKP) have degenerated into a campaign to bully the opposition and critical media.

Police have already confiscated digital copies of the draft from a publishing house that considered printing the book and a newspaper editor, Anatolia reported.

The book - "The Imam's Army" - was being written by Ahmet Şık, one of several journalists who were jailed pending trial in early March on charges of involvement in a purported "terrorist" network that allegedly plotted political chaos to prompt a military coup against the AKP.

It reportedly tells how followers of influential Muslim preacher Fethullah Gulen have taken control of key offices in the police.

A popular police chief, Hanefi Avci, who made similar allegations in a book published last August, found himself behind bars soon afterwards on charges of aiding an obscure leftist underground group.

Avci's book claims also that Gulenist policemen, aided by fellows in the judiciary, fabricated and doctored evidence in the coup probes, under way since 2007.

The court order said Şık's draft constituted "a document... that clearly makes the propaganda of a terrorist organisation," referring to Ergenekon, the network which allegedly sought to oust the AKP, according to Anatolia.

It warned that those who refuse to give away copies of the draft would be deemed to commit the offence of aiding the network.

Gulen, based in the United States for more than a decade, preaches moderate Islam, promotes inter-faith dialogue and denies having political ambitions. But Turkey's secularists insist the community is a sly movement infiltrating the state in a bid to Islamise secular Turkey.

The prosecution of journalists has sparked condemnation from the United States and the European Union, which Turkey is seeking to join.

Along with Şık, police arrested also Nedim Şener, who last year received the International Press Institute's World Press Freedom Hero award and has also criticised Gulenist policemen.

March 2011