The Court Lets Police Monitor Conversations

Talking to Bianet about the topic of “the authorization of the Police Department to monitor everyone’s telephone, sms, electronic mail and internet communication by the decision of the 11th High Criminal Court of Ankara, Akif Kurtuluş, a lawyer, said that “What is illegal here is not the violation of rights of any citizen. The real problem is the turning upside down of the very principle of democratic state written in the Constitution, which makes the rule of law possible.”

“Government is responsible for this picture”

Kurtuluş told that “This means Turkey is a police state with extensive powers and the government bears the sole responsibility for this.”

“If this country wants to become a country ruled by law, then it should start an investigation immediately against the judges who signed these decisions and  bring them before justice.”

Kurtuluş also added that every citizen can make a criminal report regarding this decision by stating that the judges who signed these decisions committed the crime of “misconduct in office.” 

“YARSAV” should make a criminal complaint, too”

Kurtuluş continued by emphasizing that the Association of Judges and Prosecutors (YARSAV) must file a complaint immediately about their own colleagues who committed this crime and that since the bars are obligated to improve human rights, they must also follow their lead, too.

On June 1, the Police Department had announced in its written release that they were not tapping the communications across the whole country and their activities were tied by three month court orders. According to the decision of the 11^th High Criminal Court of Ankara, the Police Intelligence Department is able to get hold of the record of each and every telephone and internet communication in Turkey.   

Discussions began with the allegations that the CHP deputy Sav was tapped

Discussions about police tapping began with the allegation that the Secretary-General of Republican People’s Party (CHP) Önder Sav’s room was bugged during his meeting with the former governor of Bolu and this information was published on the newspaper Vakit.

Although CHP had blamed the ruling AK party for the incident, Vakit later announced that they had received the information from Önder Sav’s own telephone that he had forgotten to turn off. (NZ/EZÖ)