Turkish military officers and civilians detained in prostitution probe

Turkish police detained on Monday about 40 suspects, including at least five military officers, in an investigation being conducted by the Istanbul Prosecutor's Office into a gang that allegedly documented the personal information of bureaucrats and military officers and recorded footage of them in compromising positions in order to blackmail them, reports Turkish daily Today's Zaman.

However, there are also suspicions that the gang was involved in espionage, although no formal charges have yet been filed.

Among those detained were a colonel, a lieutenant colonel and a major who served at the General Staff's Electronic Data Processing Unit.

Sources close to the prosecutions said they had obtained a court warrant to bring in seven military officers - including Admiral Safak Yurekli and another admiral whose name has not been disclosed - to testify.

Yurekli is currently a suspect in another ongoing investigation into a weapons cache found buried underground during a search conducted under the Ergenekon probe.

Ergenekon is a clandestine gang charged with plotting to overthrow the government. The prostitution ring that was raided in yesterday's operations is also suspected of being related to Ergenekon.

Also in yesterday's raids, retired Colonel Ibrahim S. was detained. The police also seized a large number of classified official documents in this person's house, sources said.

The police conducted searches in nine other provinces as part of yesterday's operation. The gang is accused of illegally providing prostitutes for individuals they wanted to blackmail.

An Istanbul court ruled that it constituted "a violation of personal privacy rights," which is criminalized under Turkish law, and issued a search warrant for the homes and offices of the suspects in various cities.