İrfan Fidan, an Istanbul prosecutor who is investigating the espionage activities of officers linked with the Gülen Movement, demanded that the Istanbul 1st Criminal Court arrested 38 suspects who were released after being detained during the major police operation on July 22.
In a petition submitted on Tuesday, Fidan requested the court arrested the released officers, claiming that he and two other prosecutors were only able to examine two of seven hard disks that police had seized during the raids.
A total of 115 suspects were taken into custody for their alleged role in illegal wiretapping activities for espionage purposes. However, only 31 suspects were arrested by the court, eight others were released pending trial and 76 others were released with no charges against them.
A report prepared by the Interior Ministry's inspectors showed that dozens of police officers with alleged links to the Gülen Movement – led by U.S.-based imam Fethullah Gülen – had illegally wiretapped thousands of people in a "systematic and organized" manner for espionage purposes.
According to the inspectors' report, some officers were involved in irregularities like tracking people's conversations, wiretapping, recording conversations and spotting the location of phone calls through GPS signals.
The ministry's report shows that the judiciary was misled after Gülen-linked officers allegedly wiretapped many people under different names and for made-up purposes, such as being members of a terrorist organization.
The reason for the July arrests was outlined in a four-page document by the court where it noted that numerous journalists, academics and writers were monitored, while 238 people, along with 13 religious foundations, associations, cultural centers, mosques and TV stations were also monitored.
It also said that Prime Minister Erdoğan's conversations with leaders of other countries, including Hamas leaders, were wiretapped and that his conversations with ministers were also unlawfully recorded.
