Police unravel more details on wiretapping of Turkish PM's phone

Police have further unravelled details into the probe against police officials detained over wire-tapping Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his inner circle under the pretext of a concocted probe of an alleged terrorist organisation, 'Selam-Tevhid.'

Statements of suspects, detained into the probe against Gülen's illicit ring, revealed that the 'parallel' structure illegally tapped Prime Minister Erdogan's phone conversations with the Palestinian and Somalian presidents through an interpreter.

Detainees have faced lots of questions concerning the wiretapping operations during the interrogation. The most striking question they were asked: By what authority have you listened and recorded phone conversations of Prime Minister Erdogan, Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, Energy Minister Taner Yildiz, Agriculture Minister Mehmet Simsek, Finance Minister Mehmet Simsek and the intelligence chief Hakan Fidan?

According to the file of Selam-Tevhid, not only were PM Erdogan's calls listened to on his own phone, but also his advisor Mustafa Varank's phone. The PM's calls had been caught by technical follow-up and recorded because Varank's phone conversations had been illegally listened to. Varank, a key advisor to the PM, has been recorded as a key suspect in the file.

The officers tapped Erdogan's discussion with a man, named Abdulkadir, on his advisor's phone, on November 25, 2013.

The next day, the PM called another man, called Ismail on the same phone and three days later he talked to Islamic preacher Ahmet Mahmut Ünlü, also known as Cübbeli.

Meanwhile, the terrorist and organized crimes department of Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor's office interrogated 22 suspects, who were brought to the courthouse in the Caglayan district of Istanbul on Thursday.

14 of out them have been sent to court and eight have been released, Istanbul's chief public prosecutor's office said early Friday.

The Istanbul-based operation, which began early Tuesday, saw detentions take place in several Turkish cities.