Turkish authorities have apprehended a former judge who was being sought due to his alleged ties to the Gülen movement, a faith-based group that has been the subject of a government crackdown for a decade, Turkish Minute reported on Wednesday.
Former judge Yaşar Akyıldız, who had been in hiding, was detained on Tuesday in Ankara after evading arrest for eight years.
Akyıldız, once a prominent judge, ran in the 2014 judicial elections for a seat on the top judicial board, which oversees appointments and promotions.
Akyıldız was fired after the 2016 coup attempt and was the subject of an arrest warrant on charges of “membership in an armed terrorist organization.”
The Gülen movement, inspired by the late Turkish cleric Fethullah Gülen, is accused by the Turkish government and President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan of masterminding a failed coup on July 15, 2016 and is labeled a “terrorist organization,” although the movement denies involvement in the coup attempt or any terrorist activity.
According to data revealed by Justice Minister Yılmaz Tunç in July, a total of 705,172 people have been investigated on terrorism or coup-related charges as part of the AKP government’s ongoing crackdown on followers of the Gülen movement. Tunç said 13,251 people in prison are in pretrial detention or convicted of terrorism in Gülen-linked trials.
Tens of thousands of people who were arrested in the post-coup crackdown and convicted of terrorism have been released from prison over the years after serving their sentences.
With regard to judges and prosecutors who have been dismissed from their jobs due to their alleged affiliation with the Gülen movement, the minister said 4,006 prosecutors and judges have been fired from their jobs due to their alleged Gülen links since the coup attempt.
Following the abortive putsch, the Turkish government declared a state of emergency and carried out a massive purge of state institutions under the pretext of an anti-coup fight. More than 130,000 public servants as well as 24,706 members of the armed forces were summarily removed from their jobs for alleged membership in or relationships with “terrorist organizations” by emergency decree-laws subject to neither judicial nor parliamentary scrutiny.
The investigations and prosecutions are still continuing despite multiple rulings from the European Court of Human Rights in favor of Gülen followers who were put in pretrial detention or convicted on terrorism charges following the coup attempt.
