Panel hears officials for black listing case

ANKARA - Anatolia News Agency

Hundreds were illegally recorded in Tunceli’s Hozat district in the east. DHA photo

Parliament’s Human Rights Inquiry Sub-Commission yesterday heard the Interior Ministry’s Supervisory Board deputy head Mustafa Uysal and the Ministry’s Chief Auditor Hüseyin Başol Güleç on the matter of an illegal recording case in Tunceli’s Hozat district, which was revealed last month. After giving information on data-collecting activities and legal recordings of the local police office, Uysal said a court decision was required for the intelligence departments to collect data.

He said the inspectors who went to the district provided a briefing and were still conducting their
reporting activities. According to Uysal, the inspectors are especially investigating whether there are any points that go against discipline.

According to Uysal, the Hozat Public Prosecutor’s Office confiscated the computers in the offices of the governor, police and gendarmerie, and assigned an expert to examine the computers’ memories. After the expert report is issued, it will be determined whether a disciplinary proceeding will be initiated or not.

Uysal also said a number of biography records were detected in a folder in the flash disk of a commonly used computer in the police office, of which the inspectors were informed. Sub-Commission head Mehmet Metiner said they would demand the report as soon as it was completed.

Republican People’s Party (CHP) Tunceli deputy Hüseyin Aygün said he had read some of the files in the Hozat Public Prosecutor’s Office, adding that the recordings did not have to be sent to the prosecutor if executed in accordance with the court decision, which is required to be written in the records. “As long as there is not a court decision, this recording activity becomes illegal,” Aygün said.