A mobile phone that was confiscated as part of a fraud investigation in central Turkey has revealed messages indicative of bribery involving the suspects and two prosecutors, the Sözcü newspaper reported on Wednesday.
According to journalist Can Bursalı’s report, the Board of Judges and Prosecutors (HSK) has launched an investigation into the two prosecutors but has not suspended them, despite the fact that one of them is the deputy chief prosecutor of a major district.
The fraud investigation concerns a group suspected of illegally breaching an individual’s bank account and attempting to steal some $300,000 by transferring the amount to cryptocurrency markets where it would be untraceable.
The prosecutors, currently assigned in Adana and Mersin, allegedly took $50,000 and a luxury car in bribes to ignore the network’s fraudulent transactions, according to the report.
“Our prosecutors will step in, I have talked to them,” one of the revealed messages read. “We settled for $50,000 with one, and I’ve got the other one covered.”
In recent years, many reports have pointed to widespread corruption within Turkey’s judiciary, including allegations of bribery and misconduct.
Several journalists have faced investigation, detention and prosecution for covering these allegations, while the courts immediately censored their reports.
In late 2023, the HSK undertook a major reshuffle, reassigning 506 judges and prosecutors, several of whom were facing corruption investigations.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan had lambasted the judiciary in 2013 after a graft probe targeting the highest echelons of his government exposed a bribery scandal. He accused the judges and prosecutors as well as police officers involved in the investigation of working for the Gülen movement, a faith-based group critical of his administration.
Up until 2016, Erdoğan tried to redesign the judiciary by appointing loyalists to critical posts. In July 2016 a botched coup took place, the aftermath of which saw an unprecedented crackdown, mainly on Erdoğan’s opponents.
The Turkish government accuses the Gülen movement of masterminding the failed coup and labels it a “terrorist organization,” although the movement strongly denies involvement in the coup attempt or any terrorist activity.
Following the coup attempt, the Turkish government removed more than 130,000 civil servants, including some 4,000 judges and prosecutors, from their jobs due to alleged Gülen links.
Many experts and observers said the post-coup purges sent a chilling effect on the remaining members of the judiciary.
Erdoğan’s government has also been accused of replacing the purged judicial members with young and inexperienced judges and prosecutors who have close links to the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP).
In a development that confirmed the erosion of the Turkish judiciary, Turkey was ranked 117th among 142 countries in the 2023 Rule of Law Index published by the World Justice Project (WJP) in late October, dropping one place in comparison to the previous year.
