9 out of 45 judges and prosecutors, who dismissed on Monday, detained on Tuesday

Nine judges and prosecutors, who were among 45 judges and prosecutors who were dismissed by Supreme Board of Judges and Prosecutors (HSYK) on Monday, were detained by police on Tuesday over alleged links with Gülen movement.

The judges and prosecutors had been dismissed by HSYK in the framework of a government decree (KHK) issued with No 667 under state of emergency which was declared following failed coup attempt on July 15, 2017. İstanbul Chief Prosecutor Office has issued arrest warrants for nine out of 45 dismissed judges and prosecutors who have worked in İstanbul and its vicinity. Police has detained 7 judges and 2 prosecutors on Tuesday morning.

Forty five judges and prosecutors were dismissed while three judges who have decided to release 21 jailed journalists on Friday, have been suspended by the Supreme Board of Judges and Prosecutors (HSYK) over alleged links with Gülen movement on Monday.

İbrahim Lorasdağı, chief judge of the trial which decided on Friday to release 21 out of 26 critical journalists who were jailed for over eight months without trial and trial judges Barış Cömert and Necla Yeşilyurt Gülbiçim together with prosecutor Göksel Turan were suspended by the HSYK.

Twenty-one journalists were released by an İstanbul court after their first hearing on Friday. However, they were re-detained in front of infamous Silivri Prison by the police before they were going out of the prison to meet their awaiting families late on Friday.

Although the Gülen movement strongly denies having any role in the putsch, the government accuses it of having masterminded the foiled coup. Fethullah Gülen, who inspired the movement, called for an international investigation into the coup attempt, but President Erdoğan — calling the coup attempt “a gift from God” — and the government initiated a widespread purge aimed at cleansing sympathizers of the movement from within state institutions, dehumanizing its popular figures and putting them in custody.

Over 135,000 people, including thousands within the military, have been purged due to their real or alleged connection to the Gülen movement since the coup attempt, according to a statement by the labor minister on Jan. 10.

Turkey’s Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu has announced on Sunday that 47,155 people have been jailed over alleged links with Gülen movement since coup attempt on July 15, 2016.  According to Minister Soylu, 113,260 people have also been detained with the same accusation and 745 people are still under detention on Sunday over alleged links with Gülen movement which the Turkish gov’t accuses of masterminding a coup attempt last year. Minister Soylu has said that 2,575 judges and prosecutors have also been imprisoned.

Since July 15, 2016, 4,272 judges and prosecutors were dismissed due to alleged involvement in the coup attempt.

April 4, 2017

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