17 members of the police force were detained on charges of illegal wiretapping early on Saturday, the latest in a series of operations targeting the police that critics say are politically motivated.
The operation was based in the eastern province of Van, where 9 members of the police force were detained. 8 others were detained in coordinated raids in Gaziantep, Kayseri, Ordu, Mersin, Ankara, Adana, Aydın and Manisa, private news agency Doğan said. The detentions were ordered by the Van Chief Public Prosecutor's Office.
Scores of police officials and officers have been detained since a corruption scandal on Dec. 17, 2013, which implicated then ministers and people in the inner circle of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who was then the prime minister.
Erdoğan denied corruption claims and described the scandal as a plot against his government by foreign powers and the Gülen movement, inspired by Turkish Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen, which Erdoğan says has set up a “parallel structure” within the state.
Pro-government media frequently refer to the operations against the police as “anti-parallel structure” operations.
The corruption probe was buried after new judges and prosecutors were assigned to the case. Thousands of police officials and officers as well as judges and prosecutors were reassigned or removed in the aftermath of the Dec. 17, 2013 detentions.
SHOTLIST TURKEY, VAN, 25 APRIL 2015
Exterior of the Van Police department Exteiror of the courthouse in Van
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