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Voice recording suggests Ergenekon minister behind HSYK’s ‘pirate list’
The recording allegedly features a conversation between Oktay and Ali Hadi Emre, a lawyer.
In the recording the voice said to be that of Oktay tells Emre that HSYK Deputy Chairman Kadir Özbek advised presiding judges in various courts to send petitions to the HSYK requesting new judges and prosecutors for their courts. In the petitions the presiding judges would complain about the growing workload in their courts and ask the HSYK to send them new judges and prosecutors.
“I was together with him [Özbek] this evening, I gave him my personal notes. … We talked and I did what was necessary. … He said if presiding judges send petitions to the HSYK, he will appoint the judges and prosecutors they demand to their courts,” the voice in recording says. Oktay also allegedly asks Emre to give him the phone numbers of Erkan Canak, the presiding judge at the İstanbul 14th High Criminal Court, and Zafer Başkurt, the presiding judge at the İstanbul 10th High Criminal Court. He says he will ask the judges to send petitions to the HSYK.
A recent statement by the HSYK deputy chairman hinted that the “petition plan” had already been put into operation. On Wednesday Özbek said the HSYK moved to appoint new judges and prosecutors to courts in İstanbul, Diyarbakır and Erzurum due to complaints by the presiding judges at these courts about growing workloads. Özbek said it is normal for the board to assign new judges and prosecutors to courts in the hope of lightening their workload.
The HSYK brought talks with the Justice Ministry over this year’s appointments of judges and prosecutors to a deadlock recently when it prepared an additional appointment list -- also known as the “pirate list” -- to change judges and prosecutors working on Turkey’s high-profile criminal cases, including the Ergenekon, Balyoz (Sledgehammer), Poyrazköy, Kafes (Cage) and Temizöz cases. According to most observers, the list is aimed at facilitating the release from prison of dozens of suspects charged as part of these cases.
The justice minister refused to approve the list and left the negotiating table.
Oktay is known for recent allegations that he helped many judges and prosecutors to have themselves appointed to higher positions in the judiciary. Oktay was detained on June 1 in a fresh wave of operations against Ergenekon, a clandestine criminal organization accused of working to overthrow the government. He was accused of attempting to exert undue influence over the course of the Ergenekon probe.
Oktay’s telephone conversations were wiretapped by prosecutors overseeing the probe into Ergenekon upon a court order. In the conversations Oktay is heard pressuring Özbek to have his close circle of friends appointed to senior positions in the judiciary. According to the wiretap records, judges and prosecutors who sought to be appointed to higher positions contacted Oktay and asked him for help. Oktay then telephoned Özbek and conveyed to him a list of judges and prosecutors to be appointed as members of the Supreme Court of Appeals and the Council of State.
The former minister was also accused of cronyism during his term in office as justice minister between 1991 and 1994. The accusations are mainly based on the recruitment of nearly 2,000 judges and prosecutors in 1994. More than half of the applicants were eliminated in an oral examination by a panel of judges, presided over by Oktay, though they had passed a written examination.
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