Turkish columnist detained in İzmir

İZMİR – Doğan News Agency

CİHAN photo

Gültekin Avcı, a columnist for daily Bugün, was detained on Sept. 18 in the Aegean province of İzmir as a part of an investigation into an alleged terrorist organization.

Avcı, also the lawyer of Samanyolu Medya Group chairman Hidayet Karaca, was detained as a part of the Selam Tevhid investigation.

In the summer of 2014, dozens of Turkish police officers, including high-ranking officers, were detained and accused of spying and illegally wire-tapping then-prime minister, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his inner circle, in what the chief prosecutor said was a concocted probe of an alleged terrorist group named Selam Tevhid in a pretense to tap the phones of Erdoğan, a minister and the undersecretary of the National Intelligence Organization (MİT), Hakan Fidan.

Police forces detained Avcı, who is also a former prosecutor, as he was heading toward Friday prayers in İzmir, Fikret Duran, another lawyer for Karaca, tweeted.

Avcı will be sent to Istanbul where the investigation is being conducted.