More than 38,000 FETÖ-linked persons remanded, convicted in Turkey: Minister

ANKARA

Some 38,470 Fethullahist Terror Organization (FETÖ), 10,079 Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), and 1,354 Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIL) members have been remanded or convicted in Turkey, Turkish justice minister Abdulhamit Gül said on Feb 10.

Gül said more than four million probes were launched by prosecutors in 2017.

More than six million new cases were heard by the high criminal courts in 2017, Gül added.

On Jan. 9, Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu had said total of 48,305 people were arrested across Turkey in 2017 for suspected links to FETÖ.

“The number of those detained is nearly three times higher,” Soylu had told a security meeting in Istanbul.

“Even these figures are not enough to reveal the severity of the issue,” Soylu had said.

FETÖ and its U.S.-based leader, Fetullah Gülen, are widely believed to have orchestrated the July 15, 2016 coup attempt which left 250 people killed and nearly 2,200 injured.