Prison guard arrested over Gülen links found dead in İzmir jail
İZMİR
A prison guard who was arrested over alleged links to the Fethullahist Terror Organization (FETÖ), believed to be behind the failed July 15 coup attempt, was found dead in a jail in the western province of İzmir on Sept. 1. The man, identified only as Ömer Ç., was arrested on Aug. 31, among suspects arrested in the probe launched by the İzmir Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office into the failed seizure of government. The investigation had embroiled a number of prison guards in İzmir.
No statement regarding the cause of Ömer Ç.’s death has been made and his dead body has been sent to the İzmir Forensics Institute for an autopsy.
Meanwhile, further arrest warrants, including for retired police officers, were handed out on Sept. 1 in İzmir, targeting suspects charged with being members of an “armed terrorist organization.”
A number of those arrested reportedly received orders from the movement of the U.S.-based Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen, including information via the smartphone app ByLock, according to state-run Anadolu Agency.
ByLock, an encrypted messaging service, came to prominence after the coup bid amid reports that coup plotters had been using it to communicate.
