Nine intelligence officers disappear following probe into ‘illegal wiretapping’

Çetin Aydın ISTANBUL / Hürriyet

DHA Photo

Nine intelligence officers, including a former branch head, have disappeared after anti-terror teams launched a criminal probe into the “illegal wiretapping” of government officials, prompting the police to take measures to prevent them from leaving the country.

Some 32 intelligence officers, including Ali Fuat Yılmazer, a former Istanbul police intelligence chief, were detained in Istanbul in anti-terror operations launched in 15 provinces on July 23.

However, the police have so far failed to locate Erol Demirhan, Mehmet Yılmaz, Ahmet Öztürk, Halil Karakuzu, Murat Hamarat, İsmail Aslan, Ali İkli, İkbal Kayaduman and Fatih Tezcan.

Demirhan, the former Istanbul police intelligence branch head, reportedly disappeared after saying that he was going to hand himself over to the authorities in Ankara.

A detention order was given for 76 police officers involved in the alleged wiretappings of high-level officials, including the phone conversations of the prime minister, other ministers, world leaders and the National Intelligence Organization (MİT) chief, according to a statement issued by the Istanbul Public Prosecutor’s Office on July 22.

Some 105 officers so far have been detained as part of two separate investigations into allegations of “espionage” and “illegal wiretapping.”