Case into wiretapping against high-ranking officials begins

The case into 28 people from Turkey's top science body and top telecommunications authority illegally wiretapping the encrypted phones of high-ranking state officials, including then-Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdo?an, will begin on July 13. 

Some 28 people working at the Telecommunications Directorate (T?B) and the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TÜB?TAK), including former T?B deputy chairman Osman Nihat ?en and former TÜB?TAK vice president Hasan Palaz, will stand trial for "attempting to annul the government of the Republic of Turkey or attempting to partially or entirely block the government from performing its duties, being a member of a terror organization, collecting state information that should have stayed confidential for purposes of political or military spying aims and openly revealing the secrecy of communication between individuals."

The indictment stated 28 people had illegally eavesdropped on the encrypted phones of Erdo?an, Prime Minister Ahmet Davuto?lu and a number of other officials without a court order, adding the group had transferred these voice recordings to the archives of the so-called "Pro-Fetullah Terror Organization/Parallel State Structure" associated with the movement of U.S.-based Islamic scholar Fetullah Gülen, whose followers have been accused of forming a "parallel structure" within the state.

Apart from Erdo?an, complainants in the case include Development Minister Cevdet Y?lmaz, former Justice Minister Sadullah Ergin and Gaziantep Mayor Fatma ?ahin. 

Other victims listed in the case included Davuto?lu, Deputy Prime Ministers Bülent Ar?nç and Ali Babacan, National Intelligence Organization (M?T) head Hakan Fidan, Chief of General Staff Necdet Özel, ministers Faruk Çelik...