Detention warrants issued for 300 soldiers over suspected FETÖ links

ISTANBUL

The Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s office on May 11 issued detention warrants for 300 soldiers as part of a probe investigating the Fethullahist Terrorist Organization’s (FETÖ) infiltration into the military. 

Police have so far detained 184 soldiers, state-run Anadolu Agency reported.

The warrants concern 211 soldiers on active duty, the agency reported.

At least 13 on-duty soldiers were also detained in the eastern Bingöl province and two in the western province of Balıkesir as part of other FETÖ investigations.

A total of 19 soldiers were detained in 15 provinces as part of a FETÖ investigation centered in the eastern province of Erzurum, according to a statement by the provincial governor’s office, which did not say if the soldiers were on active duty.

Also, in the western province of Kocaeli, 10 dismissed police officers were detained as part of another FETÖ investigation.

In the capital Ankara, warrants were issued for 21 suspects for allegedly leaking exam questions from the Turkish Police Academy. Eight of them were detained in operations in 13 provinces.

Separately, the Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office issued 20 detention warrants as part of an investigation of FETÖ’s female members, under charges that the suspects used ByLock, an encrypted messaging application that is said to have been used by members of the network. Five of the suspects were detained.

In the southern province of Mersin, four suspects were arrested for links to FETÖ, including the group’s alleged so-called “provincial imam.”

In other police operations across Turkey, 41 suspects were detained for suspected links to FETÖ, and four people who were detained previously in eastern province of Malatya were remanded in custody.

On May 10, detention warrants were issued for nearly 190 people over suspected FETÖ links.

The chief public prosecutor’s office in the western province of İzmir issued warrants for 96 people, including 91 suspended soldiers with the Turkish Air Forces Command, said a source, speaking on condition of anonymity due to restrictions on talking to media.

More warrants were issued in Ankara for 93 former employees of a Gülen-linked school that was shut down after the July 2016 coup attempt.

U.S.-based Islamic preacher Fethullah Gülen’s network is widely believed to have orchestrated the July 2016 coup attempt, which left 250 people dead and nearly 2,200 injured.

Since the coup attempt, Ankara has launched a sweeping crackdown in the judiciary and other state institutions.