The network of a U.S.-based cleric illegally tapped thousands of telephones in Turkey
to blackmail and concoct criminal cases as part of a campaign of covert
influence over government, a top adviser to Prime Minister Tayyip
Erdogan said on Monday.
A lawyer for preacher Fethullah Gulen, accused by Erdogan of building a parallel command structure in police and judiciary, described the accusations as unjust and contributing to an atmosphere of "hatred and enmity" in Turkish society.
The government accuses Gulen's Hizmet (Service) network of engineering corruption charges against figures including businessmen close to Erdogan that came to light with a series of raids on December 17. The scandal has posed the biggest challenge yet to Erdogan's 11-year-rule.
The government responded by reassigning thousands of police and hundreds of prosecutors and judges in a bid to purge the influence of Gulen, once an ally of Erdogan believed to have helped the prime minister rein in the power of the military.
Hizmet runs a large network of schools, businesses and media groups in Turkey and across the world. Tension with Erdogan came to light when the prime minister moved to close the schools, a primary source of Hizmet's income and influence.
One of the prosecutors named in newspaper reports as being involved in wire tapping denied the accusation.
"There was definitely no monitoring or phonetapping of thousands of politicians, writers, NGO representatives and businessmen in the framework of this dossier in the way that the newspaper stories say," prosecutor Adem Ozcan said in a statement carried by news websites.
According to Star newspaper, Erdogan adviser Yalcin Akdogan and others including the interior minister, the national intelligence agency head and politicians from various parties were among those whose phones were tapped over three years.
"For years they listened to 7,000 people and were going to open a court case against them for being a member of an imaginary criminal organization," Akdogan told Reuters.
"Completely imaginary crimes are created, a scenario is created based on phone-tapping...If you listen to somebody for five years you can construct a crime with imaginary scenarios."
"We are faced with a structure which listens to everybody illegally, follows everything concerning private life, using it when necessary as blackmail and fabricating crimes by people," Akdogan said.
Other senior Turkish officials also described widespread illegal eavesdropping, including of Erdogan himself.
Gulen's lawyer Nurullah Albayrak said in a statement there were "unjust" efforts to attribute the wiretapping to his client, calling for the matter to be investigated and saying such media reports were designed to be exploited politically.
Read more: 'Parallel state' phone-tapped thousands in Turkey: officials | Reuters
A lawyer for preacher Fethullah Gulen, accused by Erdogan of building a parallel command structure in police and judiciary, described the accusations as unjust and contributing to an atmosphere of "hatred and enmity" in Turkish society.
The government accuses Gulen's Hizmet (Service) network of engineering corruption charges against figures including businessmen close to Erdogan that came to light with a series of raids on December 17. The scandal has posed the biggest challenge yet to Erdogan's 11-year-rule.
The government responded by reassigning thousands of police and hundreds of prosecutors and judges in a bid to purge the influence of Gulen, once an ally of Erdogan believed to have helped the prime minister rein in the power of the military.
Hizmet runs a large network of schools, businesses and media groups in Turkey and across the world. Tension with Erdogan came to light when the prime minister moved to close the schools, a primary source of Hizmet's income and influence.
One of the prosecutors named in newspaper reports as being involved in wire tapping denied the accusation.
"There was definitely no monitoring or phonetapping of thousands of politicians, writers, NGO representatives and businessmen in the framework of this dossier in the way that the newspaper stories say," prosecutor Adem Ozcan said in a statement carried by news websites.
According to Star newspaper, Erdogan adviser Yalcin Akdogan and others including the interior minister, the national intelligence agency head and politicians from various parties were among those whose phones were tapped over three years.
"For years they listened to 7,000 people and were going to open a court case against them for being a member of an imaginary criminal organization," Akdogan told Reuters.
"Completely imaginary crimes are created, a scenario is created based on phone-tapping...If you listen to somebody for five years you can construct a crime with imaginary scenarios."
"We are faced with a structure which listens to everybody illegally, follows everything concerning private life, using it when necessary as blackmail and fabricating crimes by people," Akdogan said.
Other senior Turkish officials also described widespread illegal eavesdropping, including of Erdogan himself.
Gulen's lawyer Nurullah Albayrak said in a statement there were "unjust" efforts to attribute the wiretapping to his client, calling for the matter to be investigated and saying such media reports were designed to be exploited politically.
Read more: 'Parallel state' phone-tapped thousands in Turkey: officials | Reuters
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