Perception Operation Against Police Fails: 17 Police Officers Released

All 17 police officers who were detained as part of an operation in which they were accused of illegal wiretapping, violation of privacy and espionage have been released by a court.

The court verdict said that with respect to the detention of the police officers, which is widely perceived as part of an effort by the government to create the impression that the police officers were part of a plot -- that is, a corruption probe -- against the government, no concrete evidence was available regarding claims of espionage.

After being questioned at the Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor's Office, seven members of the National Police Department, including Ömer Altıparmak, the former head of the intelligence department of the National Police Department, and Lokman Kırcılı, the former deputy police chief of the Ankara Police Department, were released by the court on Thursday evening.

Following their release, Altıparmak, accompanied by his colleagues, told reporters in front of the courthouse the same evening that the operation conducted against them to create the false impression that they were involved in a plot against the government had failed.

Noting that the wiretapping of phones was conducted based on a court decision, Altıparmak, who spoke for the group, maintained that inspectors involved in their case acted like servants of the government instead of seeking the truth, to come up with an element of crime against them.

Criticizing the inspectors for labeling court decisions obtained to conduct wiretapping as illegal, Altıparmak said, “Let all know that there are no spies no traitors in the National Police Department.”

Operations into the police force are widely considered part of an attempt by the government to thwart a corruption scandal that erupted on Dec. 17 of last year, implicating the then-prime minister's family along with several now ex-ministers, some of their sons and business people.

Following the two graft probes of Dec. 17 and Dec 25, which the government claims to be a coup attempt against it, all the police officers and prosecutors who were in charge of the probes were removed.

After the procedures were completed at the police department, the eight members were referred to court in the morning on Thursday. Following their testimony at the prosecutor's office, three of them were released, while the remaining five were referred to court with the prosecutor's office demanding their arrest.

Four other members of the National Police Department were brought to the prosecutor's office in the evening on Thursday. After testifying, two of the four were released, while the remaining two were also referred to court for arrest.

The seven police officers referred to court -- Kırcılı, Altıparmak, Ali Arslan Taş, Emre Baykal, Seyit Gölcük, Hüseyin Özbilgin and police chief Hasan Ali Okan -- were released by the court pending trial.

The court, which released the suspects on the condition that they must not leave Turkey, cited as the reason for the release of police officers the lack of concrete evidence and the change in the character and content of the crime.

Out of the five other members of the National Police Department facing similar charges, two were released by the prosecutor's office on Wednesday, while three were released by the court on the same day.

Ankara police searched the addresses of some 17 senior police officers early on Tuesday as part of a new wave of a government-backed operation against the police force, after which one of the detained police chiefs said then-Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan himself had him carry out an operation against the outlawed Kurdistan Communities Union (KCK).

Former Ankara Police Department Deputy Police Chief Kırcılı said before turning himself in to the Ankara Police Department on Tuesday that he and his team had conducted an operation into the KCK at the behest of Erdoğan and that they had been turned into a target by the same decision-making mechanism. The KCK encompasses the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which is recognized as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the US and the EU.

(Cihan/Today's Zaman)