Baransu went to a court in İstanbul with his lawyer Ergin Cinmen, who demanded an investigation into the identity of those from the Van Gendarmerie Command who applied for the wiretapping warrant.
Cinmen also stated in his petition that Baransu is a well-known journalist and he has been targeted by some political groups. Cinmen indicated that Baransu’s phones were wiretapped from Oct. 24, 2008, to Dec. 1 of this year. The act is a crime under the Turkish Penal Code 204/2, Cinmen wrote, and added that the gendarmerie officials’ application to the court to wiretap Baransu’s phone was illegal.
“They also committed various crimes, carrying out illegal procedures so as to keep my phone wiretapping secret,” Baransu wrote in the Taraf daily. His lawyer further stated that Van Gendarmerie Commander Vecihi Halil İyigün’s signature is on the documents asking for permission to wiretap Baransu’s phones but they believe there are other suspects too. Cinmen demanded from the court reveal those responsible. Baransu also claimed that the gendarmerie tricked the court into believing that they were issuing a wiretapping warrant for someone else. According to Baransu, the gendarmerie applied to the Van 3rd High Criminal Court, only submitting the 15-digit International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) code -- a number assigned to all cellular phones -- of his cell phone.
The gendarmerie told the court the IMEI number was of a phone that belonged to a terrorist Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) militant named Şükrü Özkan, who used the code name Serdar. The court, unable to verify the origin of the IMEI number and believing that it was issuing a warrant for monitoring the phone conversations of this person, issued the warrant. Baransu noted that using a fake name in court also assured that the truth about Baransu’s phone lines being wiretapped would likely never be found out.
