Fifth refusal by Turkish court to  release two Greek officers pending trial

A Turkish court has once again refused to release two Greek army officers who have been held in a maximum security prison in Edirne since 3 March.

The rationale for the decision was the continuing investigation of the data on the cell phones of the two officers, Angelos Mitretodis and Dimitris Kouklatzis.

This is the fifth petition by the Greek side for the release of the two officers. Their lawyers have the right to file a new petition at the end of August.

The decision indicated the Turkish side’s intention to drag out the incarceration, even as Ankara continues to try to bargain with Athens for their release.

Experts say it is inconceivable for the examination of the cell phones to have lasted for five months after their capture. Normally it should last for days, or at most weeks. That has led Athens to believe that either Ankara is manufacturing some issue related to the phones, or that various pretexts are cited to extend the imprisonment, without charges having even been filed.

Previous petitions for the two to be released pending trial were rejected on the grounds that the officers had no permanent residence in the country.

A few days ago, the Greek government gave the officers a benefit for those officers serving abroad, in an effort to show that the two had a permanent address, presumably at a Greek diplomatic mission.

In his recent meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, PM Alexis Tsipras requested that the procedures leading to a trial be expedited, but that does not appear likely.

For his part, Erdogan directly demanded of Tsipras an exchange of the two Greeks for eight Turkish officers who have already been granted asylum in Greece.