Suspects of Erdoğan eavesdropping case in court

ANKARA

Eleven suspects have been brought to an Ankara court in a case filed to persecute those alleged of eavesdropping on Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan during his prime ministry, accused of “being members of a terrorist organization.”

The 11 appeared at the Ankara 2nd Court of Serious Crimes on Feb. 23 on charges of being members of “the Fethullahist Terrorist Organization,” an alleged terrorism group Erdoğan and his inner circle accuse U.S.-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gülen of leading to topple the Turkish government with its alleged followers inside the country’s police and other state institutions.

Holding Hasan Palaz, the former president of the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey, as guilty in the case filed, the indictment also claimed former Turkish National Police (EGM) Intelligence Directorate head Ömer Altıparmak; former EGM Intelligence Unit Technical Affairs Bureau head Ali Özdoğan; former deputy police chiefs Serhat Demir,Sedat Zavar, and Ahmet Türer; former deputy police commissioner Enes Çiğci; former police officer İlker Usta, and Hasan Akın, a former official from Turkey’s Embassy in Washington, D.C., as among the suspects in the case filed by Erdoğan’s lawyers, Hüseyin Aydın and Muammer Cemaloğlu.

The indictment accused Akın of military and political espionage, with its indictment stating Erdoğan as plaintiff.