Prosecutor’s office completes investigation into Gülenist wiretapping network

Toygun Atilla - ANKARA

The Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office has completed an investigation into an intelligence network by the Gülen Movement, under the U.S.-based Islamic preacher Fethullah Gülen, within the police which wiretapped and placed secret cameras at the residences of a number of victims between 2008 and 2012.

According to the investigation, which was launched on Dec. 11, 2015, some 99 suspects, including 89 secret police, played active role in wiretapping and setting up secret cameras in bedrooms and leaking them on the internet.

Some 36 police suspects, 15 of whom were police chiefs, escaped, while 53 of them were caught, the investigation revealed. 

Anti-smuggling police also revealed 22 wiretapping and secret camera incidents, determining that 29 people were victims of wiretapping, which 23 of them later filed complaints.

The investigation said the Gülenist secret camera network within the intelligence also targeted politicians by wiretapping and surveilling their bedrooms.

Among the victims were President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, former Republican People’s Party (CHP) head Deniz Baykal, former Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) deputies, former Interior Minister Beşir Atalay, former Aegean Army Commander Gen. Hurşit Tolon as well as some civil servants and bankers, according to the investigation.