A Turkish court jailed 33 female students pending trial on charges of alleged links to the faith-based Gülen movement after they were detained in an İzmir-based investigation, the TR724 news website reported.
The students were among 78 people detained in police operations across 12 provinces. The operations covered İzmir, Adana, Aydın, Balıkesir, Bilecik, Denizli, Düzce, Isparta, Kütahya, Manisa, Niğde and Uşak.
The Izmir Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office, which led the investigation, accused the students of taking part in the movement’s ongoing activities, providing financial support to the movement, attending overseas programs that authorities said were disguised as tourism and helping cover rent and food costs for houses allegedly used by the group.
The students were questioned over activities including renting homes together, sharing expenses, meeting friends and traveling to Balkan countries such as Bosnia and Herzegovina for tourism.
Police seized foreign currency, precious metals, Turkish lira, documents and digital materials worth about 3.3 million Turkish lira ($82,000) during searches of homes.
Thirty-nine students were referred to court after their detention. Six were released under judicial supervision, a measure that can include regular check-ins with authorities or travel restrictions.
Those jailed included students from several universities in western Turkey, including medical, law, engineering and theology students.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has targeted followers of the Gülen movement, inspired by the late Muslim cleric Fethullah Gülen, since corruption investigations in December 2013 implicated him as well as some members of his family and inner circle. He dismissed the probes as a Gülenist conspiracy and later designated the movement a terrorist organization in May 2016, intensifying a sweeping crackdown after a coup attempt in July of the same year that he accused Gülen of orchestrating. The movement denies involvement in the coup attempt or any terrorist activity.
According to the latest figures from the justice ministry, more than 126,000 people have been convicted for alleged links to the movement since 2016, with 11,085 still in prison. Legal proceedings are ongoing for over 24,000 individuals, while another 58,000 remain under active investigation nearly a decade later.
In addition to the thousands who were jailed, scores of other Gülen movement followers had to flee Turkey to avoid the government crackdown.
