Judges And Prosecutors Association Reacts To Monitoring Charges

The Judges and Prosecutors Association (YARSAV), a professional organization of the judicial bureaucracy, asked the Parliamentary committee on Human Rights to do its job and investigate the problem that the Police Department can monitor all the phone, sms, e-mail and internet communications in Turkey with court orders repeated every three months.

YARSAV said that the Telecommunication Directorate must object to all decisions about monitoring communications.

“Speaking is like breathing”

According to the news by CNNTurk.com, the announcement signed by the president of YARSAV Ömer Eminağaoğlu criticized the comment by the government that the solution is in “not speaking”, adding that this was same as saying “not to breathe.”

The announcement also reminded that while the Telecommunications Directorate did not object to the monitoring requests by the National Intelligence agency and the Police Department, it objected a similar request by the Gendarmerie and the case was brought to the attention of the Supreme Court via the Ministry of Justice.

A violation of human rights…

YARSAV emphasized that “This subject needs to be explained legally. Both the Ministry of Justice and the Telecommunications Directorate are liable. The monitoring allegations are a serious violation of human rights.”

Akif Kurtuluş, a lawyer, had 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.”

Kurtuluş has also called upon the Association of Judges and Prosecutors (YARSAV) to file a complaint immediately about their colleagues who had committed this crime. (NZ/EZÖ/TB)