Erdoğan wiretapping case begins in Ankara

Mesut Hasan Benli ANKARA

Edoğan made public on Dec. 21, 2012 that wiretapping devices had been found in his office and home, describing the move as “open espionage.” AA Photo

An Ankara court will begin the first hearing of a case into the illegal wiretapping of then-Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s offices on Jan. 2.

However, five former policemen, who have been sought by police, are still on the run in the case which includes President Erdoğan.

A prosecutor had issued search warrants for the police officers involved in the probe last June. Eleven officers, including Erdoğan’s former chief bodyguard, were then detained at their homes on June 17, while a local police chief, who is suspected of planting the bug, was not detained because he was out of the country at the time.

The bugging devices, which have already been erased, were sent to the prosecutor in May and taken in by the court’s evidence unit.

Mehmet Sürer, the sought policemen’s attorney, said he had no contact with his clients and he did not know if they would be present in the court room.

The prosecutor’s indictment says the suspects had planted bugs inside three electricity plugs in the working office of Erdoğan at the Çankaya Palace, and the devices were used for political spying from Nov. 24, 2011 to Dec. 29, 2011, when they were discovered.

The indictment also questions six other bugs inside plugs in Erdoğan’s office at his residence in Ankara.

Edoğan made public on Dec. 21, 2012 that wiretapping devices had been found in his office and home, describing the move as “open espionage.”