ELVAN EZBER
MEHMET AKIF ERDEM
Istanbul
In the 'Net Archive' operation - which was carried out under the leadership of the Police General Headquarters Security Division Presidency and which lasted 27 days - Turkey's biggest porn CD organisation was exposed.
First in the operation, the 'www.pornomik.com' site - which sold porn CD's nationwide by cargo delivery companies on the internet - was confirmed. After an application was made to the public prosecutor, the go-ahead was given for the operation.
In a raid which was carried out from four separate points, a total of 9,141 porn CD's - 2,500 of which had been imported - were seized. In addition, CD's and other materials which were awaiting dispatch to other points in the country were also seized.
It was established that the gang - which copied and sold CD's which they had imported - also had films made with some actors in a studio setting and sold these as CD recordings, and also that there was child pornography among the CD's which had been ordered and were awaiting dispatch.
Scenes on the porn CD's - in which little girls, still only 5 to 6 years old, were forced to take part and which were being marketed for 100 to 200 dollars - horrified the police.
In the operation, the gang's leader engineer Kemal Yildirim, his father retired non-commissioned officer Mehmet Yildirim and Ahmet Adnan Birim - who, it was noted, had average monthly incomes of 40,000 million lira ($30,000) - were placed under arrest.
It was noted that arrested Adem Dikici and Ahmet Adnan Birim duplicated the master porn CD's, and sent them by cargo on Kemal Yildirim's instruction to customers who had deposited money in the bank. Kemal Yildirim (who said "There was a great deal of demand. I was taking tens of orders every day. Sometimes we weren't able to get the CD's to the customers."), his father Mehmet Yildirim, Adem Dikici and Ahmet Adnan Birim were taken to Sisli Public Prosecutor's office after testifying.
Whereas the public prosecutor's office freed Mehmet Yildirim, the other suspects were taken to 1st Petty Sessions Criminal Court. The court - which fined the three people 2,856 million lira ($2,000) each - decided that they would be tried without being detained. As for the police, they began to pursue the 524 people who it was established had bought CD's.
It was revealed that the porn CD gang's ringleader, Kemal Yildirim, had been paralysed in a traffic accident, retired as an invalid, and bought a car which disabled people could use. It became clear that Kemal Yildirim sent CD's to customers who deposited money into the bank account which he had opened in his father's name.