Justice minister denies tracking emails of CHP head

ANKARA

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Justice Minister Bekir Bozdağ has denied tracking main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu’s emails, calling his remarks on the issue “slander.”

“Can such a thing ever happen? Tracking emails is something unlawful. There is no such thing. This is slander,” Bozdağ told Hürriyet columnist Abdulkadir Selvi.

His response came after Kılıçdaroğlu said the government was tracking his emails regarding claims about Adil Öksüz, one of the key figures in the failed July 2016 coup attempt.

Speaking in an interview with private broadcaster TGRT Haber late on April 3, Bozdağ said Kılıçdaroğlu received an email from U.S. saying Öksüz was “an agent of the Turkish intelligence agency.”

Kılıçdaroğlu denied receiving such an email, while claiming that Bozdağ’s comments were tantamount to a confession that the government was tracking his emails.

“They are probably tracking the emails I get. With this remark, they confess that they are tracking me and my emails. Let them explain that,” he told Selvi.

“No such mail has come to me. If there is such a thing, the justice minister should explain it or admit that my emails are being tracked,” Kılıçdaroğlu said.

Still, Bozdağ reiterated his call on Kılıçdaroğlu to explain who sent the email and urged him to explain its connections.

“I am asking Kılıçdaroğlu. What I am saying is not an allegation but states a fact. He also knows this very well,” Bozdağ said.

Previously, Kılıçdaroğlu stated that he possessed crucial information about Öksüz but could not disclose it as he did not yet have sufficient documents.

He later told Selvi that he had received intelligence suggesting that Öksüz was a MİT agent.

Öksüz, who was the Gülen movement’s leading figure in the Air Force, was briefly detained after the attempted coup but disappeared after being released.