Court rules to release former police chief

ANKARA

DHA Photo

The Chief Prosecutor’s Office of the Supreme Court of Appeals ruled on June 20 to release Hanefi Avcı, a former police chief who was sentenced to 15 years in jail for a book he wrote.

The court released its opinion in favor of the release of former Eskişehir police chief Hanefi Avcı, who was imprisoned due to a book in which he exposed the influence in state institutions of the movement of U.S.-based Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen.

The decision came following a June 18 Constitutional Court ruling stating that Avcı’s rights had been violated.

Avcı’s book, “Haliç’te Yaşayan Simonlar: Dün Devlet Bugün Cemaat” (Devoted Residents of Haliç: Yesterday, State, Today, Religious Community), was one of the first that dug deep inside Gülen’s movement.

Avcı was imprisoned and fined on charges of helping members of the illegal Revolutionary Headquarters investigate through his book.