ANKARA
A court in Ankara has ruled Friday that three more suspects detained for alleged fraud in a 2010 nationwide civil service recruitment exam should stand trial.
The court had earlier decided on trial for 34 out of 37 suspects over the fraud charges.
Twenty-five people among the group were already in custody following a number of recent arrests across Turkey.
The suspects were charged with "being a member of an organization formed to commit crimes," "fraud at the expense of public institutions and establishments," and "forgery".
A court in Ankara had ordered the detention of 44 suspects for alleged fraud in the 2010 exam.
Police are still searching for the remaining seven suspects.
The exam at the heart of the case was the Public Personnel Selection Examination, known by the initials KPSS, held in 2010.
The first wave of arrests came in late March across 14 provinces, including in Ankara, Istanbul and Izmir, which resulted in the detention of 62 suspects, 30 of whom were later released.
Police allegedly found the involvement of so-called “parallel state” members in the fraud.
The suspects of the first operation also faced charges of being members of a criminal organization, forgery, illegal and harmful activity in public institutions, destroying criminal evidence and abuse of power.
The ‘parallel state’ is a purported group of Turkish bureaucrats and senior officials embedded in the country's institutions, including the judiciary and the police, which allegedly want to undermine the current Turkish government.
Turkey’s government alleges that the clandestine network is run by the U.S.-based preacher Fethullah Gulen and that his so-called Gulen movement is responsible for masterminding a plot to overthrow the elected authorities.
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