Turkish authorities issue detention warrants for 118 military, security personnel over suspected Gulen links

2 Jun, 2020 12:16 / Updated 4 years ago

Turkey issued detention warrants for 118 people, mostly members of the military and security forces, who are suspected of links to the network that Ankara says was behind a 2016 coup attempt.

The Istanbul prosecutor’s office said Tuesday that detention warrants had been issued for 42 military and gendarmerie personnel as a result of statements by previously detained people and analyses of payphone calls. Among them, 24 officers were on active duty.

It had requested the detention of 76 military, gendarmarie personnel and civilians in a separate operation, after determining they'd used payphones to contact members of the network. Seventy-four of those people were on active duty. The detention orders included members of the land, air and marine forces, Reuters reports.

Ankara has carried out a crackdown on alleged followers of US-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen since the failed coup in July 2016. Gulen, who has lived in self-imposed exile in Pennsylvania since 1999, denies any involvement in the attempted coup.