ANKARA
A Romanian court has decided to extradite two Turkish police officers in Bucharest, who are wanted by Turkey for allegedly bugging the Turkish prime minister's office in 2014, their lawyers said Friday.
The two detained Turkish police officers are still in Romania and their defense attorney said that they would file an appeal in Bucharest for the reversal of the court’s decision. The final decision of the court will come within 20 days, the lawyers said.
In February, Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said that two members of the Turkish police force had been detained in Romania on suspicion of being involved in the bugging of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s office during his tenure as prime minister before August 2014.
The officers were named as Sedat Zavar, a Turkish police chief, and officer Ilker Usta, who reportedly fled abroad to avoid being questioned as part of an operation in Turkey to dismantle the “parallel state.” Romanian authorities were keeping Zavar and Usta under detention as their legal case continued in the country.
According to the Turkish government, the “parallel state” refers to a purported group of Turkish bureaucrats and senior officials embedded in the country's institutions, including the judiciary and police, who are allegedly trying to undermine the Turkish government. The ongoing operation against the “parallel state” has resulted in the detention of dozens of police officers and the reassignment of hundreds of other officers across Turkey.
