The question asked during the police bribery operation: 'Who is this Syrian?'

My phone rang last week. It was a friend calling. When he said, 'The Istanbul police conducted an operation targeting traffic police. 46 officers are in custody,' I said, 'No way.' Because the number was very high. After a few phone calls, I confirmed that the information was correct. In the operation carried out by the teams of the Istanbul Public Security Branch Directorate's Extortion Bureau, 46 police officers, 39 of whom were in Istanbul and 7 of whom had been reassigned out of the province, were taken into custody. The accusation was bribery. 12punto.com.tr readers were the first to learn the news, prepared with all its details and accurate information. "What is the secret of the phone belonging to the Syrian citizen that was intercepted in the operation, why were cameras placed in the mosque and school courtyard? What was in the photo at the soup shop? Why were the police arrested?" I decided to compile and write the answers to all these questions and the details of the operation for you.

THE INVESTIGATION BEGAN IN 2022 BUT THE POLICE REMAINED ON DUTY

The operation was carried out one year after the investigation, which began in 2022. In the written statement made by the Istanbul Governor's Office after the operation, it said, "It has been determined that in 2022 and 2023, in a total of 67 different incidents, 62 civilians paid bribes and 46 police officers received bribes." As stated in this announcement, the tracking of the bribery operation actually began in 2022. It was conducted with great secrecy for almost a year. Just think, 26 of the detained police officers were still on duty at the Traffic Inspection Branch Directorate, and 5 police officers were on duty at the Tuzla Traffic Inspection Bureau.

While the police department was collecting concrete evidence, wiretaps, etc., regarding the traffic police officers alleged to have taken bribes, they also ensured that the bribe-taking officers did not change their locations and continued to work in the same places, thinking that it would harm the operation. This shows that, apart from the public prosecutor managing this operation and Istanbul Provincial Police Chief Zafer Aktaş, the police officers and traffic directors conducting the investigation did not let the bribe-taking police officers suspect anything.

IT STARTED WITH A TIP TO CİMER

As for the details of the operation, everything actually came to light with a tip made to CİMER in 2022 by people who owned 2-3 excavation trucks. The tip from these individuals, who stated that they went to dump soil in the dumping area near the Formula 1 site and that they gave most of their earnings as bribes to traffic police, was evaluated and sent to the Anatolian Courthouse by CİMER in a very short time. The investigation, which began in 2022, concluded with the 3rd prosecutor to whom the file was assigned after 2 prosecutors were changed. The female prosecutor who examined the file issued a detention order, ensuring that the police were taken from their homes in a dawn raid.

THEY BOTH WIRETAPPED AND FOLLOWED THE POLICE

The Anatolian Chief Public Prosecutor's Office also conducted the operation with great secrecy. Regarding the police officers referred to the court, the file included statements such as: "It is understood that there is strong suspicion of crime indicating that they committed the crime of receiving bribes more than once, based on concrete evidence such as law enforcement reports, the suspects' defenses aimed at evading the crime, tape recordings, technical surveillance reports, and image analysis reports; that the evidence has not been fully collected and there is a possibility of tampering with evidence; that the suspects pose a flight risk; and that considering the penalty amount stipulated in the law for the crime they are charged with, judicial control measures would be insufficient for the current investigation and the arrest measure is proportionate, therefore it was decided to arrest the suspects." As indicated in the evidence entered into the file, the bribe-taking police officers were both technically wiretapped and physically followed and filmed by their colleagues.

LOOK WHERE THE CAMERAS WERE PLACED

In the investigation it conducted with great secrecy, the Public Security Branch Directorate placed cameras in the areas where the bribery network was most active to present evidence to the prosecutor's office. The police officers conducting the investigation placed security cameras on a mosque minaret in Ataşehir, in a private school courtyard in Maltepe, and next to a MOBESE camera in Göztepe, and presented the recordings as evidence in the file. In fact, during physical surveillance, one of the police officers was photographed by the police following him while he was taking a bribe at a soup shop he went to. These camera recordings were watched with great meticulousness. When the image transcripts, photos, and other evidence were presented to the court, the police officers could not escape being arrested.

WHO IS THE SYRIAN OWNER OF THE PHONE IN THE OPERATION?

The suspects and parking lot owners were wiretapped. During the wiretaps, an external phone number was intercepted. The investigating police officers, who started working to find out who this number belonged to, determined that the phone belonged to a Syrian citizen. They immediately reported the situation to their superiors. Everyone at the branch had started to wonder. 'Who was this Syrian?' What did he have to do with the bribe-taking police?

The investigating police officers, who asked each other these questions, solved why the phone belonging to the Syrian citizen was intercepted after their work. The person using the phone was one of the bribe-taking traffic police officers. It turned out that this bribe-taking police officer, who was learned not to use his own phone, was using a phone he had obtained using the identity of a Syrian person.

THEY ONLY SENT MONEY TO OUR ACCOUNTS

The statements of some of the detained police officers are noteworthy. Stating that their accounts were used, the police officers said, "We have nothing to do with the bribery incident. After all, most of them are our seniors in the profession. 'There is a problem with my account. My cousin, father, friend will send money. But there is a problem with my account. Would it be okay if they sent it to you?' they said. I accepted. Nothing crossed my mind. I am here entirely because of my good intentions."

THE SECOND TRUCK CAUSES PROBLEMS IN TRAFFIC

Both the police and the prosecutor's office conducted the investigation so meticulously that they asked the suspect police officers all kinds of questions. To the question, 'You stop an excavation truck and check its documents. Why didn't you stop the excavation truck coming behind it?' the suspect police officer replied, "The point where we stop them is the E5 Highway. We stop one truck. Stopping the second truck causes problems in traffic." It is among the information received that there may be more detentions in the coming days regarding the operations in which 18 police officers were arrested and 28 police officers were released under Judicial Control Provisions, provided that they go to the police station twice a week to sign in.