KOCAELI, Turkey
Three security officers were suspended from their posts in Turkey's Kocaeli province as part of a massive probe into unlawful wiretapping cases.
Kocaeli Governor Ercan Topaca told Anadolu Agency that Metin Canbay, former intelligence chief of Kocaeli police department, was among the three who were suspended from their duties pending the outcome of the investigation.
Topaca said Canbay was laid off from the post as a result of an investigation launched in Istanbul by the Interior Ministry regarding wiretapping cases.
"It has turned out that they illegally wiretapped phone conversations of some people including me," the governor said.
Wiretapping scandals occasionally made headlines in Turkey since Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced in late 2012 that a "bug" had been found in his office.
Turkey's daily newspapers published in late February a list of 7,000 people, including Erdogan, whose phones had been allegedly wiretapped for three years under the Anti-Terrorism Act by two prosecutors from an Istanbul Court.
A major scandal surfaced on March 28 when a recording of a leaked conversation between top security officials discussing a possible military operation in Syria was uploaded to YouTube.
aa.com.tr/en
