Yücel Altunbaşak, the former president of the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TÜBİTAK), who stepped down from his post on Friday, was detained on Tuesday on charges of abusing his authority as part of an investigation into bugging the office of then prime minister, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. The probe also implicated the former vice president of the body, Hasan Palaz, who is currently under arrest for fabricating a report with an alleged aim to protect Gülenists who were accused of wiretapping Erdoğan's office.

Teams from Ankara Police Department's counterterrorism unit detained two officers at TÜBİTAK, Osman K. and Eren Y. along with Altunbaşak for abusing their position early on Tuesday. The three gave statements after going through health checks.

Palaz is believed to be affiliated with the Gülen Movement, which has been accused of infiltrating key government institutions in a purported attempt to overthrow the government, and he was arrested last week on charges of preparing a fake report regarding the bugging incident.

Two weeks ago, the Ankara 11th Criminal Court of Peace issued the arrest warrant for three officials who face various charges of destroying, concealing or altering criminal evidence and forgery of official documents in a case on the alleged bugging of Erdoğan's office.

Palaz was allegedly asked to oversee the purported bugging operation of the office by figuring out the timing and length of time it lasted. Palaz reportedly assigned Gökhan Vıcıl and Hamza Turhan to the task and it was later discovered that assessments reported in the document were false and the report was fabricated, which fueled doubts that the suspects were trying to protect members of the Gülen Movement to avoid charges against them.

It was also claimed that Turhan and Vıcıl, who were tasked with preparing the report, did not have the expertise to carry out the task. The two suspects in question were detained along with Palaz on Monday for the alleged fabricated report. There were also allegations that scores of people were assigned to TÜBİTAK with fake diplomas at the time Palaz was vice president of the organization.