126 ISIL members in prison: Turkish Justice Ministry

ANKARA

DHA File Photo from July 24, 2015. Halis Bayancuk, a senior ISIL leader based in Istanbul, and his wife were arrested as the police raided their home in Istanbul's Bağcılar district.

Some 126 people were in Turkish prisons on charges of being a member of the Islamic State and Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) as of Aug. 10 2015, the Justice Ministry has stated in reply to question submitted by Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) deputy Faysal Sarıyıldız.

Some 121 of these 126 prisoners are arrested on charges of being a member of ISIL, while the other five have been convicted, it also said.

In its answer, the ministry cited a total of 156 cases of crimes allegedly committed by suspected ISIL members.

Facing criticism for not better controlling its southeastern borders, the Turkish authorities have accelerated police operations against ISIL suspects in the country since early 2015.
 
Halis Bayancuk, a senior ISIL leader based in Istanbul, also known by his jihadi nickname “Abu Hanzala,” was arrested on July 27 after being detained on July 24 along with his wife in an anti-terror police operation against ISIL-linked suspects in Istanbul.

Police have also been carrying out nationwide operations to apprehend suspected militants of Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and the far-left Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party-Front (DHKP-C), with around 1,600 people detained or arrested since mid-July.