Turkey hunts 9 in wire-tapping probe

Police arrest over 100 top police officers

ISTANBUL, July 23, (AFP): Turkish authorities were on Wednesday hunting for nine police intelligence officers still on the run after a massive operation against suspected illegal wire-tapping resulted in the arrest of over 100 people.

A total of 105 serving and former top police officers have so far been detained since early morning raids were launched on Tuesday in Istanbul and other cities, including the capital Ankara as well as Izmir and Diyarbakir.

The suspects are accused of espionage, illegal wire-tapping, forging official documents, violation of privacy, fabricating evidence and violating the secrecy of an investigation.

In the raids that continued through Wednesday, police failed to find the nine wanted intelligence officers, including Erol Demirhan, the former head of the intelligence department of the Istanbul police.

Demirhan disappeared after saying he was going to surrender to authorities in Ankara, Hurriyet newspaper reported on its website.

The arrests are the latest episode in a rivalry between Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his former ally, the US-exiled Fethullah Gulen, involving a huge graft scandal that shook the government.

Police on Tuesday led away in handcuffs dozens of high-ranking police officers, some of whom denounced the raids as entirely political coming just ahead of the August 10 presidential elections which Erdogan is widely expected to win.

In a show of defiance, another former Istanbul police intelligence chief, Ali Fuat Yilmazer, raised his handcuffed fists high above his head and said on Wednesday: “Turkey will see, these (the handcuffs)