 |
Probe raises suspicions over court wiretapping own members
The Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office completed an investigation launched as a result of allegations that phones at the Supreme Court of Appeals and the Council of State were illegally wiretapped. Based on an expert report, Ankara Deputy Chief Public Prosecutor Nuri Yiğit concluded that the switchboards of the Supreme Court of Appeals Presidency, Supreme Court of Appeals Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office and the Council of State Presidency had not been wiretapped. The prosecutor’s office examined a total of 2,115 telephones belonging to the high courts and said there was no need to take legal action against the relevant officials.
However, the inquiry did bring an interesting detail into the spotlight: Investigators reportedly discovered that one of the switchboards currently in operation at the Supreme Court of Appeals Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office is capable of recording the phone calls of personnel. However, due to technical restrictions, the investigation was unable to indicate whether this switchboard had ever actually recorded any phone calls.
The wiretap controversy emerged late last year after claims that the telephones of İstanbul Chief Public Prosecutor Aykut Cengiz Engin had been wiretapped since 2008 as part of a probe into a criminal organization known as Ergenekon. This was followed by further allegations that the telephones of some members of the Supreme Court of Appeals had also been wiretapped since 2008. The Justice Ministry and the Telecommunications Directorate (TİB) both strongly refuted the claims.
Only three institutions, the National Police Department, the National Intelligence Organization (MİT) and the gendarmerie, have the authority to legally wiretap phones in Turkey -- and even then, a court order is required for those institutions to wiretap a phone. When a court order is issued for the wiretapping of a phone, it needs to be approved by the TİB.
The Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office also investigated claims that TİB illegally provided the phone records of certain individuals to the Prime Ministry upon orders of the prime minister but found no evidence to substantiate these allegations.
The wiretapping debate gained momentum last week when a voice recording emerged allegedly featuring three members of the Supreme Court of Appeals speaking about what could be done to prevent the public from approving constitutional reforms in the upcoming public referendum. They said terrorist Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Öcalan was crucial for generating opposition to the constitutional reforms.
The voices in the recording allegedly belong to judges Hamdi Yaver Aktan and Yusuf Uluç, the heads of the Supreme Court of Appeals’ 8th Criminal Chamber and 8th Legal Chamber, respectively. Aktan denied being one of the speakers on the recording but claimed that remarks made in different places had been spliced together in the recording. A third person’s voice, allegedly that of judge Fatih Arkan, is also heard in one of three recordings posted on the website dailymotion.com.
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| BÜLENT KENEŞ |  |
||
| What befell Niyazi-i Misri in the past is happening to Fethullah Gülen now | |||
| EKREM DUMANLI |  |
||
| When a call for fairness and reason finds acceptance | |||
| ŞAHİN ALPAY |  |
||
| Uludere, test case for democracy in Turkey | |||
| EMRE USLU |  |
||
| Are the Kurds mentally divorced from Turkey? | |||
| GÖKHAN BACIK |  |
||
| Erdoğan, Gül and Davutoğlu: the inner bargain on Turkish foreign policy | |||
| MARKAR ESAYAN |  |
||
| Taking lessons from previous experiences with the military | |||
| YAVUZ BAYDAR |  |
||
| Qualm | |||
| ÖMER TAŞPINAR |  |
||
| A new phase in Syria? | |||
| İHSAN DAĞI |  |
||
| Turkish foreign policy: Time for a re-evaluation | |||
| SEYFETTİN GÜRSEL |  |
||
| Poor-friendly economic growth and the AK Party | |||
| CHARLOTTE MCPHERSON |  |
||
| Missing women, missing opportunities | |||
| BERK ÇEKTİR |  |
||
| Changes to incentives for investment in Turkey | |||
| MERVE BÜŞRA ÖZTÜRK |  |
||
| The 1960 coup: a final test for democracy | |||
| AMANDA PAUL |  |
||
| Ukraine: a lost country | |||
| MÜMTAZER TÜRKÖNE |  |
||
| The 52nd anniversary of May 27 | |||
|
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
