Released Police Chief Denies Ever Engaging In Any Unlawful Deeds

Former İstanbul Police Department Anti-terrorism Unit Chief Ömer Köse, who was released on Tuesday evening after being held in custody for a week as part of a government-backed probe, has said that he and other detained police officers have never engaged in any unlawful deed, stating that they just performed their jobs within the scope of the law.

Responding to questions from reporters in front of the courthouse after he was released on Tuesday evening, Köse stated that he was never involved in any deed for which he could be called a “traitor” stating, “History will not judge us traitors, but them [referring to the government officials and pro-government judiciary members].”

“As I stated before, everything my colleagues and I did was within the scope of the law. We never put our name on something which was improper. If we did anything that necessitates an apology, we have apologized. However, we also did this within the law, and we have never regretted what we have done.”

Köse also stated that there were orders from prosecutor's offices or courts for every act they performed as part of the investigations they conducted, stating that the investigation file prepared against the police officers detained during last week's raids against police officers who conducted a major graft investigation that implicated many state officials, doesn't include any evidence. Köse added that they really wonder why the police officers were detained or arrested in the ongoing investigation.

More than 100 police officers, including former senior police chiefs, were detained in an operation that began with pre-dawn raids last week. The operation, which prosecutors say was launched in response to allegations of spying and illegal wiretapping, is widely believed to be an act of revenge by the government against a corruption probe that became public on Dec. 17, 2013 with the detention of dozens of people, including businessmen close to the government, senior bureaucrats and the sons of three now-former ministers.

Most of the police officers detained were involved in the major graft operation of Dec. 17, as well as officers who carried out the Balyoz (Sledgehammer), Ergenekon, Kurdistan Communities Union (KCK) and Tawhid-Salam investigations. Tawhid-Salam is an Iran-backed terrorist organization. (Cihan/Today's Zaman)

SHOTLIST
TURKEY, ISTANBUL, 30 JULY 2014

VAR of the released police officers making statement to the press members

DURATION: 06:11