Court admits husband's snooping into evidence

A top appeals court decided that evidence collected through illegal bugging could not be used by itself to prove guilt but could be used in conjunction with other evidence in a 2015 case where a man in the Aegean province of Aydın believed his wife was cheating on him and installed a bugging application onto her cell phone.

The application turned the cell phone into a recording device. The recordings showed the woman really was cheating on him with a colleague from work. The man immediately filed for divorce, demanding compensation from his wife and the custody of their child.

The woman countered with her own divorce filing. She argued that her husband had abused and insulted her before kicking her out of the house. She also demanded the custody of the child and compensation.

The local court agreed to the divorce, but found the woman guilty of attacking the husband's rights by cheating, sentencing her to pay TL 20,000. The court also gave the custody of the child to the father, arguing that the mother, a nurse, worked night shifts.

The court's decision on the sound recordings was to admit the evidence, arguing that the sanctity of marriage was not the private sphere of individuals but the common domain of the family and consequently, the recordings cannot be deemed a violation of the woman's private life.

The woman took the matter to the appeals court, which decided that while the the sound recordings were illegal and should be disregarded when considered by itself, together with other corroborating evidence, could be utilized to decide on guilt or innocence. It said, with witness testimonies, phone registries and photographs, the act of cheating was proven.