scouting for information on Soviet intelligence, Ames recruited one of Gezmiş' roommates, who gave him information about the membership and activities of Devrimci Gençlik (DEV-GENÇ), a Marxist youth group. Arrest and trial In December 1970, Gezmiş and his comrades opened fire on two police officers guarding the US embassy in Ankara, injuring them both. In the following month, he was involved in a bank robbery. On 4 March 1971, he and other members of the People's Liberation Army of Turkey (THKO) kidnapped four U.S. privates from the TUSLOG/The United States Logistics Group headquartered in Balgat, Ankara. Three young men delivered a news agency a note confirming the authorship of the THKO together with an ID or a relative of a soldier, demanding a ransom for the US soldiers by 6 P.M. Since a driver of the THKO was captured, a second note delivered to a Turkish news agency prolonged the deadline by 12 hours, this time demanding the release of the driver. After releasing the hostages, he and Yusuf Aslan were captured alive in Gemerek, Sivas following an armed stand-off with law enforcement officers Following Gezmiş was brought to Ankara and presented to the Turkish minister Haldun Menteşoğlu and the public. Their trial began on 16 July 1971. They were accused for participating in a robbery of the Emek branch of İşbank in Ankara, and the abduction of US soldiers. Gezmiş, Yusuf Aslan and İnan were sentenced to death on 9 October for violating the Turkish Criminal Code's 146th article, which concerns attempts to "overthrow Constitutional order". According to legal procedure at that time, a death sentence had to be endorsed by Parliament before being sent to the President of the Republic for final assent. In March and April 1972 the sentence was placed before Parliament and in both readings the sentence was overwhelmingly approved. Prime Minister at that time was Nihat Erim. Some politicians such as İsmet İnönü and Bülent Ecevit opposed the sentence, but others, amongst them Süleyman Demirel, Alparslan Türkeş and İsmet Sezgin voted in favor of it. He and his colleagues within the AP (Adalet Partisi – Justice Party) gave votes in favor of the executions, shouting, "Three from us, three from them!". – referring to the right-wing Democratic Party politicians (including former Prime Minister Adnan Menderes), who had been executed in 1961 after the Yassıada trials. The Republican People's Party (CHP) appealed to the Constitutional