Thousands of people, including Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, national intelligence chief Hakan Fidan and a wide range of journalists, academics, business leaders and NGO representatives, have been wiretapped for years by the police as part of different probes, Turkish media claimed Feb. 24. The reports prompted a top judicial body to open an internal investigation into the claims, but were dismissed by the prosecutor involved in the cases.
The classified files on the wiretappings were found in the Istanbul Public Prosecutor’s Office by the new prosecutors who were assigned following mass purges in the judiciary, pro-government dailies Star and Yeni Şafak claimed in separate but similar reports.
Yeni Şafak reported that up to 3,064 people have been wiretapped according to the first documents found by the newly appointed prosecutors, while Star alleged that the real number is likely close to 7,000.
The Supreme Board of Judges and Prosecutors (HSYK) has launched an investigation into the prosecutors and courts involved in the cases cited by the reports. However, the prosecutor who allegedly launched the probes that led to the mass wiretappings dismissed the claims and said it was impossible to track the phones of so many people at once.
The classified files on the wiretappings were found in the Istanbul Public Prosecutor’s Office by the new prosecutors who were assigned following mass purges in the judiciary, pro-government dailies Star and Yeni Şafak claimed in separate but similar reports.
Yeni Şafak reported that up to 3,064 people have been wiretapped according to the first documents found by the newly appointed prosecutors, while Star alleged that the real number is likely close to 7,000.
The Supreme Board of Judges and Prosecutors (HSYK) has launched an investigation into the prosecutors and courts involved in the cases cited by the reports. However, the prosecutor who allegedly launched the probes that led to the mass wiretappings dismissed the claims and said it was impossible to track the phones of so many people at once.
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