Ex-police officer sentenced to 6 years in prison for collecting personal data illegally

Drawing: Murat Başol 

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Expelled police officer E. O. who was part of the Progressive Lawyers Association (ÇHD) investigation was sentenced to 6 years imprisonment for "collecting personal data illegally."

The İstanbul 50th Criminal Court of First Instance first ruled for a total of 4 years of imprisonment, 2 years each for each person, and then to a total of 6 years of imprisonment, increasing the penalty since "the verdict who is a public officer has committed the crime by way of misconduct of his authority related to his duty."

The sentence was not reduced "since no opinion was formed that the verdict was remorseful."

Personal data collected on "religious beliefs, sexual lives"

In the indictment, the expelled police officer E.O., who was before on duty in İstanbul Anti-Terror Department, was being charged with collecting personal data illegally.

The anti-terror department officers of the period who participated in the investigation on the lawyers from Progressive Lawyers Association had made hundreds of notes on the margins of the tape recordings, with personal information in them. In their notes, they had speculated on the content of private telephone conversations and messages.

Such information kept although having nothing to do with the accusations towards the lawyers was saved in the computers nevertheless.

According to an indictment prepared 9 years after the recording of these messages, data belonging to 3,248 people who were investigated in 355 different case files was kept while it was necessary to delete the same.

The data of 4,395 communication data belonging to 3,248 people whose telephones were tapped between 2008-2013 in these records.

Personal messages and typed texts of telephone recordings had been kept together with 2 thousand "notes" the police officers made on their margins.

According to the indictment, the 2 thousand notes related to thousands of people including those for whom non-prosecution was ruled and those who are standing trial "were related to the political, philosophical or religious opinions of these people not related with the subject matter of the investigation, their races, their moral attitudes, their sexual lives, their health or their trade union connections and it was a crime that these records had been kept."

Police chief wanted to remove evidence

In the investigation of the police officers who were later expelled it was understood that the records were backed up in another computer. One police chief wanted to delete and remove these illegal records after 2014.

According to the indictment police chief N.A. who was the only person authorized to log into the system to do the deleting, deleted all records at 03:14 am. on January 22, 2014. However, the prosecution was able to reach some of the notes and the ones who have written them through their registration numbers.

Note of police officer: "His girlfriend has left him"

Lawyer Efkan Bolaç filed a criminal complaint about the police officers who recorded his personal data illegally in 2012. The indictment was prepared after the police officers were expelled. More than 30,000 personnel were expelled from the police force in Türkiye following the coup attempt in 2015.

The case was opened 9 years after the event. According to the case file, the police had kept a note saying "He is saying that his girlfriend has left him" about a verdict named H. investigated in 2012.

Again in another note dated 2012 there was a note saying "living together with a woman, named X, had an affair with a woman called ...... and they are living together."

Lawyer requests dismissal on statute of limitations grounds

Expelled police officer E.O. said in the first trial that he had taken notes that he thought "would be helpful."

And in the final hearing, he said "I deny the accusations. More than one officer was appointed in the related investigations. I did not take the notes that are the subject matter of the case. My involvement has not been identified. I demand my acquittal."

And his lawyer requested dismissal of the case on grounds of statute of limitations.

However, the court ruled that ex-police officer E.O. was proven guilty of the offense in relation to the case file where Lawyer Efkan Bolaç and another person were the complainants.

E.O. was sentenced to 3 years of imprisonment for each of the complainants separately according to article 135/1 of the Turkish Criminal Code. (AS/PE)