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Seventeen defendants accused of infiltrating numerous government institutions and stealing personal information of millions of citizens will be tried for espionage at a court handling terrorism cases, after a surprise ruling transferred the case from a regular criminal court.
The Ankara 33rd Heavy Penal Court, which was initially assigned the case, ruled that the defendants' actions fall under "crimes against state secrets and espionage," ordering the file transferred to a heavy penal court handling terrorism cases.
The court ruling stated that personal data sets belonging to approximately 101 million Turkish citizens were found on computers, mobile devices and cloud storage units belonging to the defendants.
The defendants allegedly obtained the data by conducting cyberattacks on public institutions, including the Ministry of National Education, the General Directorate of Land Registry and Cadastre, the Ministry of Health, universities, and some private companies.
They are accused of stealing user data from websites and networks, including bank and credit card information, names, surnames, addresses and Turkish ID numbers, then selling this information on a website called "illegalplatform.com/org."
The court ruling stated that the website's IP location was in the Netherlands.
The platform had 97,275 topics created, 813,378 messages sent, and 24,188 registered members.
Law enforcement determined that after gaining access to critical information systems of public institutions, the defendants digitally produced, altered, and distributed forged official documents and certificates, the court ruling stated.
"Advanced techniques imitating official templates and digital signatures of public institutions were used in the production of these documents," the ruling said.
The Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor's Office had initially filed a case at the Ankara 33rd Heavy Penal Court, which handles general crimes.
The indictment prepared by the Ankara Public Prosecutor sought penalties for "unlawfully obtaining or disseminating personal data," "possessing prohibited devices and programs," and "violating the Cyber Security Law."
The court had accepted the indictment and scheduled a hearing for January before issuing the surprise ruling transferring the case days before the trial was set to begin.
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