Four detained in military exam fraud case in central Turkey

The operation was initially conducted in Ankara and Kayseri while further operations were expected to be held in other provinces.

Three suspects, identified as H.E., 44, H.A., 25, and H.E., 46, were detained in Kayseri along with another in Ankara in a morning operation on June 3 in light of evidence sent to the Kayseri Chief Public Prosecution Office. Detention warrants were issued for four other suspects, three of whom were reported to have headed to Kyrgyzstan.

The four detained suspects were brought to the Kayseri Education and Research Hospital by the police department’s counterterrorism team for health check-ups.

The prosecution office said the investigation into the military exam fraud was ongoing.

A controversial Twitter user nicknamed “Fuat Avni” and known as a whistleblower who has disclosed details about several investigations and operations before they were launched, had said on June 2 an operation was going to be launched on June 3 over an allegation of military exam fraud conducted in 2013.

The Kayseri Police Department had been conducting an investigation over a two-year period over claims some people, dubbed “elder brothers,” leaked the military school exam to benefit candidates close or belonging to the movement of U.S.-based Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen, who the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan have long accused of forming a “parallel structure” within the Turkish state, and that those candidates were currently students at military academies.