In response to questions from the press regarding recent allegations of wiretapping of Supreme Court of Appeals phones, Kanadoğlu said: “The Republic of Turkey is a secular, democratic, social welfare state governed by the rule of law that respects human rights. If it really respects human rights, it should ensure that 70 million people do not have to live under the suspicion that their phone conversations are being listened in on. If you are governed by the rule of law, you should ensure that judicial independence survives. If you want to see a democratic regime survive, then everything should live up to the standards of contemporary democracy.”
In response to a question regarding Telecommunications Directorate (TİB) President Fethi Şimşek’s denial that Supreme Court of Appeals phones were wiretapped, Kanadoğlu said he had seen a directive from a Justice Ministry inspector to the national police department that clearly tells the police to move records of a wiretapped phone number connected to the Supreme Court of Appeals operator to “someplace else” or destroy all records of the wiretapping. “If there was indeed no wiretapping of the Supreme Court of Appeals phones, then the inspector’s writing is not in line with reality. If that was the case, the TİB president’s statement is not true.”
YARSAV President Ömer Faruk Eminağaoğlu also spoke at yesterday’s general congress, saying the wiretapping scandal has shown that the government is trying to put the judiciary under pressure. He said YARSAV was being attacked by the government and some media outlets for not keeping silent in the face of attacks against the judiciary.
