As part of a post-coup crackdown targeting followers of the faith-based Gülen movement, Turkish police in Antalya province on Sunday detained 27 people who were accused of visiting families whose members were recently released from jail.
The suspects were also accused of renting houses for people hiding from prosecution.
Twelve of the detainees were sought by prosecutors for alleged membership in the Gülen movement.
On Monday the İstanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office ordered the detention of 57 people over Gülen links.
The suspects were accused of using ByLock, a smartphone app, essentially the same kind of application as WhatsApp, Skype, Signal and Blackberry Messenger.
A report published by the Stockholm Center for Freedom (SCF) revealed the absurd pretexts used by prosecutors to indict suspects and judges to jail innocent people who are alleged to have been affiliated with the Gülen movement. The report finds that fundamental principles of law, such as nulla poena sine lege, or “no penalty without a law,” have widely and systematically been violated
Police raided houses in 14 provinces, detaining 20 suspects, according to the state-run Anadolu news agency.
Following the controversial coup attempt, the government launched a massive crackdown on followers of the Gülen movement under the pretext of an anti-coup fight as a result of which more than 150,000 people were removed from state jobs while in excess of 50,000 others were jailed and some 600,000 people have been investigated on allegations of terrorism. (SCF, turkishminute.com)
