A Turkish daily on Thursday claimed that the government is planning to dismiss three police chiefs and three police commissioners involved in the corruption investigation which has implicated the government in an attempt to discredit the prestige of the summary of proceedings about four former Cabinet ministers accused of involvement in corruption.
The Bugün daily wrote on Thursday that while Parliament is set to discuss the summaries on May 5, the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) government is making plans to discredit the documents and claims included in them. According to the daily, three police chiefs and three police commissioners who were involved in a major corruption and bribery operation of Dec. 17, 2013 will soon be dismissed through falsified documents and evidence. The six police officials were removed from their duty and reassigned to other posts after Dec. 17, 2013. The daily said that the dismissals may come before May 5. The dismissals will be promoted by the government media who will allege that the police chiefs and commissioners are controversial people, and that accusations of corruption and bribery leveled against the four former ministers are therefore not to be trusted.
The summary of proceedings involving former Interior Minister Muammer Güler, former Economy Minister Zafer Çağlayan, former Minister of EU Affairs Egemen Bağış and former Environment and Urban Planning Minister Erdoğan Bayraktar reached Parliament in February, but the government has so far prevented Parliament from holding a debate over the contents. The four men resigned from their posts roughly one week after the major graft operation broke out on Dec. 17 of 2013 but have denied any wrongdoing.
The AK Party has been quick to reassign public officials en masse in response to the corruption and bribery operation. As many as 15,000 police officers and hundreds of members of the judiciary have been reassigned since Dec. 17. News reports emerged in early April that the Interior Ministry is preparing to dismiss all reassigned police officers.
An investigation is ongoing into the six police officials and is being carried out by inspectors of the Interior Ministry. According to Bugün, the inspectors are trying to find ways to dismiss the officials even though they have so far failed to obtain evidence that the officials committed crimes or wrongdoings. The daily said it learned from sources at the Interior Ministry that the officials will be accused through falsified documents of abusing their power and inciting hatred in society.
Bugün also said that the Interior Ministry is also investigating the six police officials for a technical follow-up they carried out against Yasin al-Qadi, a Saudi Arabian businessman who is on the US Treasury Department's “Specially Designated Global Terrorist” list. The follow-up came after an order from a public prosecutor between February 2012 and October 2012 when al-Qadi was barred from entering Turkey by a Cabinet decision.
Claims emerged in the Turkish media in late 2013 that the Saudi businessman illegally entered Turkey four times between that period and Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's protective detail escorted al-Qadi during his time in Turkey.
Source/Fuente: http://www.todayszaman.com/news-346666-govt-plans-to-dismiss-police-offi...
