ISTANBUL (AFP) –
A court in Istanbul ordered Wednesday the release of a jailed colonel at the centre of tensions between Turkey's Islamist-rooted government and the secularist military, a media report said.
Colonel Dursun Cicek had been arrested overnight and subjected to lengthy questioning by a prosecutor investigating a purported secularist network that allegedly plotted a military coup against the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), the Anatolia news agency said.
The court ruled that Cicek could remain free while awaiting trial.
Cicek was the officer whose signature appeared on a purported document, leaked recently to the media, which outlined a series of actions to discredit the AKP and an influential religious community.
The general staff rejected the document as a forgery and decried what it called a "growing and organised" smear campaign against the army.
Media reports suggested Cicek's arrest may not be related to the document but to the broader investigation into the alleged anti-AKP plot, which has been under way since June 2007.
Several retired generals and acting officers as well as journalists, academics, politicians and underworld figures are among the dozens of suspects to have been detained in the investigation.
Prosecutors say the suspects aimed to plunge Turkey into political chaos and pave the way for a coup to topple the AKP, which opponents accuse of seeking to undermine Turkey's secular system.
The probe, initially hailed as a success, came under mounting criticism after prosecutors began targeting intellectuals and civic groups.
Critics accuse the government of using the investigation as an instrument to bully and silence opponents.
Tensions between the military, seen as the guardian of Turkey's secular system, and the government rose further last week after the AKP rushed through parliament a bill curbing the powers of military courts in a pre-dawn session, without any prior public debate.
The opposition argues that the bill, which the AKP defends as a move to meet EU-sought democracy norms, was designed to influence the probe into the alleged anti-AKP plot by limiting the role of military prosecutors.
Several suspects have said they never possessed the documents implicating them in the plot, accusing the government-controlled police of fabricating evidence.
Cicek's arrest came shortly after a lengthy meeting between senior government members and top military commanders to discuss the tensions.
