Lawyers for the CHP submitted the petition supporting the complaint to the office of the Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor’s on Friday. In its complaint, the CHP accuses Vakit’s owner and two of its writers of illegally publishing excerpts of a conversation between the party’s secretary general, Onder Sav, and former Governor Ali Serendag, which took place in Sav’s office on May 23, in its May 26 edition.
The petition said that while the identity of those who carried out the illegal bugging was unknown, it was certain to whom they provided the contents of the illegal tap.
In their petition, the CHP’s lawyers said the act was a violation of the European Convention on Human Rights and the Turkish Penal Code.
As no bugging devices were found in the CHP headquarters during a search after the article was printed, it had to be assumed the monitoring took place from a distance.
As the CHP headquarters are equipped with high technology security and surveillance systems, the lawyers said it was impossible for someone to enter the building unnoticed or unchecked and that visitors were escorted by security personnel through the corridors and common areas which are at the same time monitored with surveillance cameras. “Recordings from these cameras were thoroughly examined and no unusual thing was noticed,” the lawyers said.
The petition said both the conducting of the monitoring from a distance and the exact match of the actual conversation with the excerpts published by Vakit showed that the technology used was very advanced.
“Only professionals and special teams possess these advanced devices and technologies,” the petition said. “Plus, as can also be understood from the news stories that appeared in the press and on television, the producers of these technologies can sell their products to only States under permission granted to them by their country’s authorities.”
