Prosecutors order detention of 78 Bank Asya execs for Gülen links

ISTANBUL

Istanbul police have launched an operation to detain 78 former employees of the now-closed Bank Asya, including the lender’s top executives, as part of a probe launched by Istanbul prosecutors into the network of the Fethullahist Terrorist Organization (FETÖ).

Some 42 of the suspects were detained on June 16, state-run Anadolu Agency reported.

The Smuggling and Financial Crimes branch of the Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office on Istanbul’s Asian side is looking into the links of Bank Asya executives who were in charge between the start of 2014 and the end of the same year, when the lender was seized by the state, probing a total of 87 people charged with “being a member of a terrorist organization” and “providing finances for a terrorist organization.”

The state-run Saving Deposits Insurance Fund (TMSF) took over Bank Asya on Dec. 24, 2014, before its license was totally annulled in July 2016. The bank is now on sale.

Bank Asya, an Islamic lender, was initiated by Fethullah Gülen, the leading suspect in the cases into the failed July 15, 2016, coup attempt.

Police operations against the suspects have spread to seven provinces across Turkey. Anadolu Agency said five of the suspects are already in jail on other charges.