Turkish commander detained on wiretapping charge

DÜZCE

A probe has revelaed that Gökhan Çillioğlu’s phone has been wiretapped after his complaint on his father’s suspicious death.

The gendarmerie commander of Düzce province, four other troops and one retired soldier were transferred to Malatya today, after they were detained on April 17 in connection with the alleged suicide of Col. Kazım Çillioğlu and the illegal wiretapping of his son’s phone.

The specially authorized Chief Prosecutor’s Office in the eastern province of Malatya had issued detention orders for eight suspects who were then taken into custody on April 17 across several provinces in Turkey.
Col. Turhan Yazıcı, the gendarmerie commander of the northwestern province of Düzce; Lt. Col. Ahmet Çaylı, the deputy gendarmerie commander of the province; and intelligence sergeants Tuğrul Zencir, Mutlu Sülecik and Vedat Atıcı were brought to Malatya today.

The Malatya specially authorized Chief Prosecutor’s Office had requested that the Telecommunications Directorate (TİB) determine whether the phone line used by the deceased colonel’s son, Gökhan Çillioğlu, had been tapped upon a complaint filed by the latter. The consequent investigation revealed that Gökhan Çillioğlu’s phone had been wiretapped only five days after the file regarding the dead colonel reached the Malatya specially authorized Chief Prosecutor’s Office in January 2011. Gökhan Çillioğlu’s phone was added to a list of 34 phone numbers belonging to a group of drug smugglers for purposes of audio surveillance, but the prosecutor’s office subsequently determined that Gökhan Çillioğlu’s phone was not connected to the other 34 numbers in any way.

 
Compiled from Doğan news agency and Anatolia news agency stories by the Daily News staff in Istanbul.