ANKARA, Jan 7 (A.A) - Ankara State Security Court (DGM) No. 2 sentenced on Monday Ferhan Ozmen, Necdet Yuksel and Rustu Aytufan to death in the Case of ''Umut (Hope) Operation''.
Huseyin Eken, the chief judge announced the verdict. The court acquitted four suspects. One suspect will be tried at criminal court and the case about one suspect was suspended due to the Law no. 4616.
The court sentenced 15 suspects to heavy imprisonment changing from three to 18 years.
The operation was launched to find the murderers of prominent intellectuals including Ugur Mumcu, a journalist and writer.

PROCESS OF ''UMUT (HOPE) OPERATION'' CASE

The case which was filed after the ''Umut (Hope) Operation'' started to be heard by the Ankara State Security Court (DGM) no:2 on August 14, 2000 and the court made a verdict nearly 17 months after in the 20th hearing.
Police gave the start for the ''Hope Operation'' on February 21, 2000 in order to capture murderers of journalist-writer Ugur Mumcu under the light of information in CD and floppy diskettes seized in an operation on January 17, 2000 against terrorist Hezbollah organization's Study Group in Istanbul.
Information saved in those CD and floppy diskettes revealed Tevhid-Selam and Jerusalem Army organizations, and police started to detain suspects on May 6, 2000 in Istanbul. Police said they had captured illegal Tevhid-Selam organization's head Hasan Kilic and members Mehmet Ali Tekin, Yusuf Karakus, Abdulhamit Celik, Muzaffer Dagdeviren, Fatih Aydin, Mehmet Sahin, Talip Ozcelik and Arif Tari as suspects of assasination of Mumcu.
The Istanbul DGM no:6 decided on May 6, 2000 to ban publications about the investigation while more than 100 people were detained in operations throughout Turkey.
Suspects Yusuf Karakus and Abdulhamit Celik were brought to the place where Mumcu had been killed in a car bomb attack, with an armored vehcile on May 11, 2000 and they made re-enactment.
Prosecutor Hamza Keles went to Bandirma on May 12, 2000 together with suspect Yusuf Karakus and had Keles and an Hezbollah member confront each other.
On May 13, 2000, Ankara Gendarmerie teams confiscated 39 hand grenades, 2 hand grenade fuses, 46.5 kilograms of C-4 plastic explosives, 46 TNT bars, a number of cartridges and 18 machine guns in Cimsit village in Sincan township of Ankara.
When Necdet Yuksel who had been detained in Ankara on May 14, 2000 on charges of involvement in murder of Prof. Dr. Ahmet Taner Kislali, showed a house in Sincan on May 15, 2000, and many hand guns, 2 Uzi guns, 8 fire launchers, 50 suppressors, bombing devices, 89 C-4 explosives and a number of bullets were seized.
Nine people who had been detained in Istanbul were arrested by the Ankara DGM on May 14, 2000 and sent to Eskisehir Prison.
The Ankara Security Directorate had suspects Ferhan Ozmen and Necdet Yuksel who were accused of many terrorist acts including assasination of intellectuals make re-enactments on May 20, 2000. Ozmen and Yuksel were arrested on May 21, 2000.
Prosecutor Keles who was carrying out the investigation into the ''Hope Operation'' filed a lawsuit on July 11, 2000 against 17 suspects and sought death sentence for 9 of them while he decided that there was not an indictable offense regarding 111 suspects and he had separated dossiers of suspects Rustu Aytufan and Oguz Demir who had not been captured.
On the same day, Prosecutor Keles held a press conference at the Ankara DGM no: 2 and gave information on the indictment.
The indictment said that members and rulers of Tevhid-i Selam and Jerusalem Army were working to topple the constitutional system in Turkey using arms and instead establish an Islamic state similar to that of Iran. Tevhid-i Selam organization was formed by a group of radical people who gathered around Tevhid magazine which was started to be published by Nurettin Sirin in 1985. The indictment said that the group was working very closely with Ilim and Menzil groups of Hezbollah organization.
The computer disks found in Hezbollah leader Huseyin Velioglu's house revealed that Tevhid-i Selam was receiving financial aid from Iran and the group's military wing was in contact with Iranian intelligence agency.
The indictment said that Jerusalem Army was carrying out cultural and military activities in Turkey under secrecy. The organization was formed among the Protectors of the Revolution after the revolution in Iran in 1979. The group's goal was to form Islamist groups against the sytem in Turkey and create animosity, violence and chaos in the country and finally bring an Islamic regime.
It was also stated that some people were sent to Iran to a ''touristic holiday'' from Turkey and these people were trained at military camps about the use of arms and bombing. The travel costs of these individuals were met by also Islamist groups.
The indictment said that Ferhan Ozmen confessed killing Prof. Muammer Aksoy in front of his house on Jan.31, 1990 and Dr. Bahriye Ucok on Oct. 6, 1990.
The indictment also stated that Ozmen produced the bomb that was planted in Mumcu's car which killed him on Jan. 24, 1993. The bomb was planted by Oguz Demir. It was also stated that Rustu Aytufan planted the bomb on the car of Prof. Kislali which killed him on Oct. 21, 1999.
The case started at Ankara State Security Court (DGM) No. 2 on August 14, 2000. Here are the important developments that took place during the trial process:
-The suspects claimed in the first hearing that they were tortured in Istanbul and Ankara security directorates and they didn't accept the accusations on them.
-The court decided to send suspects Necdet Yuksel and Ferhan Ozmen to hospital to be psychologically treated in central Eskisehir province in the second hearing heard on September 8, 2000.
-Ozmen and Yuksel didn't defend themselves showing their psychological condition as an excuse in the hearing held on October 2, 2000. The court decided to wait for the medical report about these suspects.
Prosecutor Keles filed a suit on October 12, 2000 against suspect Rustu Aytufan, who confessed that he placed bombs in the cars of Prof. Dr. Ahmet Taner Kýslalý and Prof. Dr. Yuda Yurum requesting death sentence for him and three other suspects for helping and abetting the illegal Jerusalem Army. The second case related to the same operation started on October 27, 2000. Aytufan didn't defend himself saying that he was not ready for that.
-Eskisehir State Hospital sent reports to the court saying that the suspects Ozmen and Yuksel didn't have serious psychological illness that would impede them from defending themselves.
-The court decided to unite two cases. The first case had 17 suspects and the second one had four suspects including Rustu Aytufan.
-The number of the suspects increased to 24 when another file regarding the killing of Ugur Mumcu was united with this case.
Prosecutor Keles requested death sentence for nine suspects, heavy imprisonment for nine of them and acquital for five of them in his remark about the merits of the case he announced in the hearing held on September 7, 2001.
The hearing to be held on November 2, 2001 was postponed.
The suspects except Talip Ozcelik and his lawyer completed their defense about the merits of the case in the hearing heard on November 19, 2001.
The defense of all the suspects and lawyers about the merits of the case were completed on December 7, 2001 and the court started to examine the file to give a verdict.