Elusive Expert Report in Oda TV Trial Finally Reaches Court

The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TÜBİTAK) finally released its expert report on the computers of three suspects implicated in the ongoing Oda TV trial. The 339 page long report, however, proved to be just as enigmatic as it had remained elusive for the seven months that it took to prepare it.

The experts found out that the computers had been infected with viruses, but the suspects never opened the infected files, according to the report.

The experts, however, were unable to ascertain whether the viruses they identified were downloaded onto the computers via malicious ware or not, the report also added.

Three experts from TÜBİTAK examined three computers owned by suspects Barış Pehlivan, Müyesser Yıldız and Oda TV itself, upon a request filed by the Istanbul 16th High Criminal Court.

TÜBİTAK's report said the experts had encountered numerous traces of malicious software, including software that can download files from afar and which specifically targeted the computers' users, and that these malicious programs had already run on the computers in question.

The experts also said they had found no evidence that the files listed under Annex-I had either been created or modified on the computers themselves, with the exception of two files on the second computer.

The report further added that four files on the third computer also bore some inconsistencies in their metadata that were unlikely to have come about under normal course of usage, and that these inconsistencies were likelier to have been been caused by outside intervention, possibly by the malicious software in question.

"No conclusive judgement could be delivered on whether the files [mentioned in Annex-I] have arrived by means of malicious software or not," the report concluded.

Ahmet Şık, Nedim Şener, Doğan Yurdakul, Müyesser Yıldız, Coşkun Musluk, Sait Çakır, Ahmet Mümtaz İdil and İklim Ayfer Kaleli are currently standing trial without arrest in the trial, while Soner Yalçın, Yalçın Küçük, Barış Terkoğlu, Barış Pehlivan and Hanefi Avcı have remained under arrest for over a year and a half pending trial. (EKN)