Turkey issues detention warrants for 254 municipal, ministry staff over ‘coup links’

3 Oct, 2017 09:11 / Updated 7 years ago

Turkish prosecutors issued detention warrants for 254 Istanbul municipal and ministry staff over alleged links to the US-based cleric accused of orchestrating last year's attempted coup, Reuters said. In Istanbul, prosecutors ordered the arrest of 112 current and former staff of municipalities, according to state-run Anadolu agency reported. They were accused of being users of Bylock, an encrypted messaging app which the government says was used by Fethullah Gulen’s followers. The Interior Ministry said on Monday nearly 1,000 people were detained over the previous week on allegations of ties to what they describe as a ‘Gulenist terrorist group’.