Number of arrests hits 31 in Turkey's 'wiretap probe'

The number of officers arrested in the 'wiretap probe' jumped to 31 after the recent arrest of 11 more police officers, including the former chief of Isranbul's counter-terror unit,Yurt Atayün.

As a result of the 'parallel state' operation, 31 out of 115 police officers have been imprisoned on charge of 'spying' and the 'illegal wire-tapping' of state officials while the rest have been released. After the trial, those to be imprisoned were sent to Metris prison on a police bus.

The 115-page court record said the suspects conducted an investigation into an alleged Iran-linked terrorist organisation, Selam Tevhid, as a pretence to wiretap and record phone conversations of the Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the intelligence chief Hakan Fidan, ministers and key officials.

Islam Çicek, the judge in Istanbul 1 Criminal Court of Peace, said in his ruling that all suspects including Atayün have committed the offense of military and political espionage. The ruling also said the suspects shave misled the courts that issued tapping orders by forging official documents.

In the previous arrest wave, a Turkish court had ordered on July 26 the arrest of 20 police officers, including the former head of Istanbul's intelligence unit, Ali Fuat Yilmazer.

The arrest of 31 police officers has intensified the power struggle between Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his former ally Gulen, whose followers took up key posts in the police and judiciary.

'WE WOULD HAVE DONE THE SAME THING'

Istanbul 1 Criminal Court of Peace has released 84 suspects into the investigation over espionage claims. Ömer Köse, the former chief of Istanbul's counter-terrorism unit, fielded reporters outside the Çaglayan court house after his release. 'We have gone through trying times when we were detained. We have done nothing wrong,' said Köse. 'We would have done the same thing if it had happened today.'

Kemal Aksoy, a defence lawyer, said he would appeal the court's judgment about the 11 officers who have been arrested in the wiretap probe. Families of the imprisoned, who gathered outside the court house, whistled and applauded for several minutes to protest the court's verdict.

The wave of arrest has come after two high-profile Istanbul-based anti-graft operations were launched in December last year, which led to the arrest of high-profile figures, including the sons of three government ministers as well as several businessmen. All those detained in the probe were later released pending trial.

The Turkish government has denounced the probes as a "dirty plot" constructed by a "parallel structure" group of bureaucrats embedded within the country's key institutions, including the judiciary and police. This group, allegedly run by a movement led by the U.S.-based Turkish Islamic preacher Fethullah Gulen, has been accused of conducting thousands of illegal wiretapping operations in Turkey.