A former manager of Turkish major arms producer Mechanical and Chemical Industry Corporation's (MKE) factory in Kirikkale, Mustafa Tanriverdi, was sentenced to 12 years and eight months in prison for an attempt to sell the design of Turkey’s MPT-76 rifle to one of the US arms companies, local media reported on Thursday.
Tanriverdi was arrested in April for "exploiting state secrets" and "disloyalty to the state," the Turkish Daily Sabah newspaper reported. The manager offered a US company designs and production plans of MPT-76 known as the National Infantry Rifle, the newspaper explained, adding that the representatives of the company only showed interest in the offer and contacted the police.
Undercover officers accompanied officials from the US company to the meeting with Tanriverdi, and the suspect, according to the media, was detained after having received the money for the data. The MKE started the development of a new infantry rifle for the Turkish army in 2007. The 7.62-caliber MPT-76 is partly modeled after the US M16 rifle and is the first infantry rifle designed and produced entirely in Turkey. The mass production of the rifle started this year.