Turkish President Erdo?an?s former chief guards on trial for spying

An Ankara court conducted its first hearing on Jan. 2 in a case into the illegal wiretapping of former Prime Minister, now President Recep Tayyip Erdo?an?s offices, with some of the leader?s top guards accused of planting bugs to eavesdrop on Erdo?an.

One of Erdo?an?s bodyguards, Zeki Bulut, said he ?devoted? himself to Erdo?an, but he is now accused of ?betraying? the former prime minister.

The Ankara 7th Court of Serious Crimes has made Erdo?an, who was elected as president in August 2014, and the Prime Ministry parties to the case.

The court also rejected demands by the eight defendants present at the first hearing that they be discharged. There are 13 total suspects, but five police officers who are implicated in the case have yet to be apprehended.

Erdo?an?s security chief at the time, Mehmet Yüksel, said they had searched for possible bugs in every venue where the prime minister delivered speeches, but they realized during the investigation that regular searches were not conducted in Erdo?an?s residences.

They proposed to the Police Department that two searches a month should be conducted in both Erdo?an's house and his official residence, but carrying out bi-monthly searches proved difficult due to his busy schedule, Yüksel said.

?But I don?t think our colleagues were evil-minded,? he said.

Yüksel said the first bug was found on Dec. 28, 2011. ?It was very confidential information. The undersecretary invited me to his room and told me about the issue. He asked us to contact the intelligence chief and work on it. We did our best to reveal [the truth],? the police chief said.

According to the law, they did not have the authority to carry out searches, but they attempted to conduct the...