Sixteen military officers and previously expelled military academy cadets who were detained along with 26 others last week as part of an ongoing operation within the Turkish military were arrested on January 15, 2019, the state-run Anadolu news agency reported.
Twenty-three of the officers and cadets were released on judicial probation. Two were reportedly released for lack of evidence, and one is still in police custody.
The İstanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office announced last week it had ordered the detention of 50 suspects across 16 provinces including six officers — one colonel, two majors, one lieutenant and two sergeants — and 44 military academy cadets who were expelled after a failed coup in 2016.
Last year, a total of 523 soldiers were arrested among 989 military members for whom detention warrants were issued by Turkish prosecutors on charges related to the controversial coup attempt.
During a two-year-long state of emergency declared immediately after the abortive coup, the Turkish government dismissed some 140,000 civil servants and thousands of pro-NATO officers by decree, and more than 600,000 people were investigated on terrorism charges, mostly on accusations of links to the faith-based Gülen movement.(SCF with turkishminute.com)
