Pro-Kurdish DTP MP Questions Phone Tapping

Democratic Society Party (DTP) MP Hasip Kaplan reacts to Minister of Justice's statement that around 70 thousand people's phone conversations were under surveillance by court order.

Introducing a motion at the parliament, Kaplan asked if those order are in accordance with the law or not.

"Diyarbakır prosecutor's office told that at least 40 thousand people are under surveillance with regard to our party. That leaves only 30 thousand other orders and raises the suspicion that only our party members are under surveillance."

Minister of Justice Mehmet Ali Şahin declared that surveillance orders are forwarded to the Telecommunications Communication Department (TİB) for execution and the government has no means to interfere on this process.

Şahin told 12 thousand 841 of the recordings were destroyed, as they didn't involve any criminal activity.

Surveillance and telephone tapping are controversial issues in Turkey, as such recordings frequently surface at the Internet and arguably used as a means to discredit opposition members. Lawyer Ali Koç, previously argued that requiring court orders didn't provide enough control over the issue. On another account, TİB chair Fethi Şimşek explained that they only execute the orders and wouldn't know the target person.

"We give the recordings to whichever authority asks for the surveillance, the police department, the gendarmerie or the National Intelligence Service. They decide what to do with it. Therefore, we couldn't have anything to do with those recordings leaking to the media. Moreover, technical surveillance is beyond us. Security and intelligence services can do this with special orders."

Last year, journalists' revealed that a Diyarbakır court had provided a "general permission" to security forces, allowing them to wire into whoever's phone as they like.(EÜ/AGÜ)