Prosecutors seek detentions for 103 academics of Istanbul’s Yıldız Technical University

ISTANBUL

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Istanbul chief public prosecutors have issued detention warrants for 103 academic personnel and detained 73 from Istanbul’s Yıldız Technical University, over alleged links to the U.S.-based Islamic preacher Fethullah Gülen, believed to have masterminded the failed July 15 coup attempt in Turkey, state-run Anadolu Agency has reported. 

Police raided addresses in Istanbul to detain the 103 academic personnel who are being charged with “membership of an armed terror group” in the investigation. 

Some 73 detained academics were transferred to a police station after health checks in Haseki Training and Research Hospital.

Some of the suspects were reportedly accused on charges that they were using the ByLock application, a messaging app that is said to have been used for concealed conversations by Gülen’s followers since 2014.

Earlier, Ankara prosecutors had issued warrants for 103 academic personnel, detained 31 in 16 provinces and identified that 22 of the suspects were reportedly abroad.

Some 110,000 people have been sacked or suspended in the civil service, army and judiciary and 36,000 people are jailed pending trial in the investigation of the failed coup, in which over 240 people were killed and nearly 2,200 injured.