Wiretapping scandal still echoes in Turkish capital

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has criticized how judicial members reacted to the wiretapping scandal after attending the fourth meeting of the Council of Disabled People on Monday.

The Court of Appeals’ chief prosecutor has reportedly begun examining the connection between the ruling Justice and Development Party, or AKP, and the wiretapping scandal in order to determine whether there has been “illegal wiretapping by political order.”

“I have no received any information to confirm this. No step has been taken that is against the law,” Erdoğan told reporters. “It is clear whose attitude is wrong if the judicial institutions or officials don’t respect the court’s decisions [to grant permission for the wiretaps]. Above all, the judicial members should respect the court’s decisions. As long as they expect us to respect the decisions, then they should, too.”

Erdoğan also said he has been wiretapped illegally.

“How dare they suggest such claims against my party when the reality is well known?” the prime minister said. “I find it quite ugly. Nobody has the right to accuse my party of having connections to such illegal actions. The government has been acting within the legal frameworks.”

Gül attempts to ease tension

President Abdullah Gül meanwhile received both Justice Minister Sadullah Ergin and Hasan Gerçeker, the head of the Supreme Court of Appeals, on Monday in an attempt to ease tension related to the wiretapping scandal that shook the country last week.

News hit Thursday that Istanbul Chief Prosecutor Aykut Cengiz Engin and the Supreme Court of Appeals switchboard were wiretapped within the scope of the Ergenekon case, an investigation into a suspected gang that allegedly sought to topple the government. The wiretapping was revealed when the Justice Ministry’s Inspection Committee sent a letter to the 11th Istanbul High Criminal Court asking for a three-month extension for the surveillance.

It has also been claimed that Osman Kaçmaz, chief judge of the First High Criminal Court in Sincan, and Ömer Faruk Eminağaoğlu, the chairman of the Judges and Prosecutors Association, or YARSAV, had been illegally tapped by the Telecommunications Directorate. Eminağaoğlu is known for his critical remarks against the AKP and Kaçmaz previously ruled that President Gül should be tried in a corruption case dubbed “the missing trillion.”

Court suggests legal changes on wiretapping

“It is not about disagreement. We only expressed our opinions and the matters that we voiced earlier,” Gerçeker told reporters outside Çankaya Palace following his talks with Gül.

“I would like to stress that wiretaps are legal within the right framework. But if you wiretap by violating basic human rights and freedoms, you need to update the related regulations,” the head of the Supreme Court of Appeals added. “It needs to be evaluated carefully.”

Having suggested some legal changes on wiretapping, Gerçeker avoided giving details of the meeting, or of Gül’s remarks.

‘Thousands of judges and hundreds of journalists are wiretapped’

Tacidar Seyhan, a deputy of the main opposition Republican People’s Party, or CHP, has claimed that thousands of judges and hundreds of journalists, as well as members of Parliament, are currently being wiretapped.

According to a report by daily Hürriyet, Seyhan, an ex-member of the Illegal Wiretapping Investigation Commission, said: “Judges and prosecutors have been wiretapped over the last three years... Some 3,000 judges, 300 deputies and 613 journalists are being wiretapped. Also the parliamentarians’ e-mails are checked at least three to four times before being received.”