Two detained in fresh raids in mass wiretapping case

ISTANBUL

Two police chiefs have been detained in Istanbul following fresh raids within an investigation into the wiretapping of Turkish lawmakers and civil servants, the state-run Anadolu Agency has reported. 

The probe is linked to the creation of an alleged fake terrorist group called “Selam Tevhid,” formed to justify the wiretapping, with U.S.-based Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen as the main suspect of the case. Gülen is accused by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and many members of his Justice and Development Party (AKP) of forming and heading a terrorist organization to topple the Turkish government through insiders in the police and other state institutions.

The detained, identified as Hamdi Yeter and Abdurrahman Bişgin (who was previously suspended), were among a total of 26 for whom detention warrants were issued last week by the Istanbul Police Department’s counterterrorism unit, within the case to investigate the possible wiretapping of 7,000 lawmakers, civil servants, journalists, academics and others. President Erdoğan, Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu and National Intelligence Agency (MİT) head Hakan Fidan were among those alleged to be targeted by the wiretapping over three years starting from 2011. 

The case has so far had 122 suspects, with police raids conducted in Istanbul, Ankara, the northwestern provinces of Kocaeli and Bursa, the Central Anatolian province of Çorum, the eastern provinces of Malatya and Siirt, the southeastern provinces of Diyarbakır, Mardin and Hakkari, and the Mediterranean province of Antalya.