Eight Police Officers Arrested
Eight police officers detained in the scope of the “espionage” and “illegal wiretapping” investigations against members of the Police Headquarters were arrested today.
14 out of the 22 suspect police officers interrogated in the prosecution office were sent to court with an arrest warrant. 4 of the 14 suspects were released in legal control and 2 in the courthouse.
Ercan Palaz, Şeref Bolat, İsmail Torlak, Fatih Kırcı, Ramazan Altınışık, Selahattin Ergin, Mehmet Dilaver and Mesut Yılmaz were arrested according to information on news sites. The names of the released police are Polat Kongur, Kadri Cemal Yiğit, İlhan Polat, Ali Kavlak, Hasan Emecan and Turgay Yıldırım.
The suspect police officers attacked their colleagues come to take them to prison, according to news on Hürriyet and Radikal. Relatives of the officers met them with applause after the court declared its verdict and the officers left the courtroom. Some relatives were seen to react to the verdict. One police officer confronted his colleagues saying, “Am I an illegal organization member?”
82 taken to prosecution office
The 82 people detained in the operations organized by Istanbul Police Headquarters Anti-Terror Branch and Fight against Organized Crime Branch teams were brought today to Çağlayan Courthouse.
The suspects brought today to prosecution interrogation included Ömer Köse (Former Anti-Terror Branch Head), and Ali Fuat Yılmazer (Former Intelligence Branch Head).
How did it start?
The investigation that came on the agenda July 22 towards the morning hours started in the following way, according to Hürriyet newspaper’s news item:
Civil inspectors found in their examination at İstanbul Intelligence Branch that 250 people including politicians, businesspeople, artists and journalists illegally wiretapped in the Ergenekon, Organized Crime Association, Tawhid-Salam Organization, PKK and drug suits between 2008-2012.
Inspectors found that the wiretaps had been done with aliases over İMEİ numbers between years 2008-2010, and with real names between 2010-2012.
Another infraction was discovered in the wiretapping decision during the examination: The police had presented printed, ambiguous expressions as justifications for the decisions. The wiretapping decisions requested without concrete evidence had apparently been obtained with the help of certain courts’ judges.
102 out of the 115 security officials about whom Istanbul Chief Public Prosecution had issued a warrant and detention ruling in the scope of the "espionage" and "illegal wiretapping" investigations. (BK/PU)
* Photograph: Elif Öztürk / İstanbul / Anadolu Agency (AA)
* Click here to read the article in Turkish.