A judge who ordered the arrest of six police officers in Adana on Wednesday as part of an investigation into claims of illegal wiretapping has been revealed to be a strong supporter of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
On Thursday, several news portals published a number of Facebook posts by the judge, İbrahim Sağır, in which he expressed his close affinity to the prime minister.
On March 28, the judge wrote, “We love you R.T. Erdoğan because those who don't love you don't love this nation either. Because Zionist Israel and its collaborators don't love you. Because all oppressed people and Muslims in the world love you. Because you are of this nation. May God protect you and help you succeed. For all of our sakes. Amen.”
In another post on the social media platform on March 30, the judge celebrated the victory of Erdoğan's Justice and Development Party (AK Party) in the local elections. “Yes friends, the real winner is the great Turkish nation. And the loser is Israel, the neocons and their collaborators here [in Turkey].” In the municipal elections of March 30, the AK Party won a clear victory, garnering 43 percent of the vote.
The posts have cast serious suspicions on the impartiality of the judge while ordering the arrests of the police officers in Adana.
Eight police officers were detained in Adana on Tuesday as part of an investigation into claims of illegal wiretapping. A court on Wednesday decided to arrest six of the officers. The questioning of the officers in custody has confirmed claims that the investigation was based on false reports about claims of illegal wiretapping published recently by some newspapers.
During his testimony, the former deputy head of the Adana Police Department, İsmail Bilgin, who was among the six arrested officers, denied claims that he ordered the illegal wiretapping of individuals and said that he did not issue any orders for illegal wiretapping. “I did not order anyone to wiretap the phone conversations of anyone else by using false names,” the police chief reportedly said. The six arrested officers are being investigated on suspicion of “carrying out illegal wiretapping using false names” and “participating in illegal acts.”
Bilgin's lawyer told the media on Wednesday that the officers had been targeted due to a news report published on March 18 by the pro-government daily Star. In the report, Star claimed that 148,000 people have been subjected to illegal wiretapping in 30 provinces by members of the “parallel structure,” an expression commonly used by the Erdoğan government to refer to the faith-based Hizmet movement. According to the daily, the wiretapped recordings were shared with foreign powers.
In addition to Star, other pro-government newspapers have for some time been running articles which claim, albeit without providing any evidence to back up the allegations, that Hizmet has been illegally wiretapping state institutions as well as top state officials.
Bilgin's lawyer also denied some news reports that the police officers were arrested as part of an “operation against the parallel structure.” He also said that he would appeal against his client's arrest, adding, “There was no illegal wiretapping [in which my client was involved]. All wiretapping carried out during the term in office of my client was carried out legally.”
Bilgin also told the police that he has never gone beyond the boundaries of the law.
Judge Sağır also expressed his dislike of Turkish Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen and the Hizmet movement in his Facebook posts. In a post on April 1, the judge wrote: “One day, a young man came and presented a petition to me. I asked him what his petition was about. He said he wanted to change his name. I checked his name. It was Fethullah. I asked the man why he wanted to change his name. He said he doesn't want to share a name with that traitor [referring to Fethullah Gülen]. At first I felt sorry. Then I admired the man's sensitivity.”
According to news sources, Bilgin was asked by police if he had ever been abroad through illegal means. In response, Bilgin said that he had not, saying that he had been to Germany three times, Hungary once and the UK once through legal means and for business-related purposes.
Bilgin, similar to several other arrested police officers, was removed from his post following the corruption operation of Dec. 17, 2013, which implicated senior members of the government and some of their close relatives.
Since Dec. 17, more than 7,000 police officers, including hundreds of police chiefs, have been removed from their posts. A majority of them have been demoted to less significant positions within the country's police departments.
Prime Minister Erdoğan has reacted furiously to the corruption investigation, decrying an attempted "judicial coup" which his supporters see as orchestrated by the Hizmet movement, inspired by Turkish Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen. The prime minister has reassigned thousands of police officers, more than a hundred judges and prosecutors and has purged official bodies of senior figures he suspects of being followers of Gülen.
In January, Adana Chief Public Prosecutor Özcan Şişman ordered police and gendarmes to stop and search Syria-bound trucks on suspicions of transporting arms. The incident drew the ire of the government, which claimed at the time that the trucks were carrying humanitarian aid and had nothing to do with any kind of arms cargo.
The government soon removed the prosecutor, police chiefs and one gendarmerie commander who took part in the operation. The ruling AK Party government argued that the local security forces did not have the authority to search trucks that belonged to the National Intelligence Organization (MİT), which raised questions about the operation, such as how the prosecutor and police chiefs got the information about the Syria-bound trucks.
Two members of the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) were detained in Ankara on Wednesday as part of an investigation into the stopping and searching of the trucks in Adana.
While the police officers are targeted as part of an illegal wiretapping investigation, albeit based on false news reports, MİT officials are not held accountable for wiretapping individuals illegally. In May 2013, the Prime Ministry rejected a request for permission by prosecutors to prosecute a group of MİT officials in a case concerning the illegal wiretapping of several Turkish journalists by the organization.
Main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) Adana deputy Turgay Develi criticized Judge Sağır, saying that he is out of words to describe what this judge has done. “What kind of logic is this? What type of rule of law is that? I do wonder. Can this really be a judge?” he asked.
Gov't continues to reassign police officers
On Thursday, 135 police officers at the Iğdır Police Department were removed from their duty and reassigned to other posts in the province. Most of the removed officers were working in the counterterrorism, anti-smuggling and organized crimes and intelligence units of the police department.
In March, 88 officers at the Iğdır Police Department were also reassigned.
In addition, İrfan Olçar, a police officer working at the National Police Department's special ops unit, was also removed and appointed to the Police Academy earlier this week. Olçar was heavily wounded in a terrorist attack on Mount Judi in Şırnak province in 2012. The officer underwent several operations and remained hospitalized for several months.
Interior minister: Over 180 investigations ongoing
Interior Minister Efkan Ala told reporters on Thursday that at least 180 investigations are ongoing into claims of illegal wiretapping.
While commenting on the arrest of police officers in Adana, the minister dismissed news reports that several other police officers were being questioned in the Ankara Courthouse. "Six police officers have been arrested. This is the result of an investigation into illegal wiretapping," he said.
Published on Today's Zaman, 10 April 2014, Thursday
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