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Turkey: Officers Arrested in Spy Case Turkey: Officers Arrested in Spy Case
(35 minutes later)
Dozens of Turkish police officers were detained on Tuesday and accused of spying on Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his top aides, news agencies reported. The Istanbul chief prosecutor’s office, in a statement carried by the semiofficial Anadolu News Agency, said the officers had fabricated an investigation into a supposed terrorist group as a pretense to spy on top officials. More than 500 prominent figures have been illegally wiretapped since 2010, CNN Turk television reported, citing the prosecutors’ office. More than 100 officers have been charged with falsifying evidence, illegal wiretapping and espionage, and 67 were taken into custody in a 22-city security operation. Some of those who were detained were involved in a corruption inquiry that ensnared Mr. Erdogan’s close circle and forced four ministers to resign in December, news reports said. Mr. Erdogan has said the graft investigation was driven by people loyal to Fethullah Gulen, a cleric who lives in Pennsylvania and is a former ally who still has influence in various state institutions. Sinan Ulgen, a visiting scholar at Carnegie Europe in Brussels, called the arrests “the latest episode in the war waged against the Gulen community.” Dozens of Turkish police officers were detained on Tuesday and accused of spying on Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his top aides, news agencies reported. The Istanbul chief prosecutor’s office, in a statement carried by the semiofficial Anadolu News Agency, said the officers had fabricated an investigation into a supposed terrorist group as a pretense to spy on top officials. More than 500 prominent figures have been illegally wiretapped since 2010, CNN Turk television reported, citing the prosecutors’ office. More than 100 officers have been charged with falsifying evidence, illegal wiretapping and espionage, and 67 were taken into custody in a 22-city security operation. Some of those who were detained were involved in a corruption inquiry that ensnared Mr. Erdogan’s close circle and forced four ministers to resign in December, news reports said. Mr. Erdogan has said the graft investigation was driven by people loyal to Fetullah Gulen, a cleric who lives in Pennsylvania and is a former ally who still has influence in various state institutions. Sinan Ulgen, a visiting scholar at Carnegie Europe in Brussels, called the arrests “the latest episode in the war waged against the Gulen community.”