Istanbul police remanded in ByLock probe

ISTANBUL

An Istanbul court on Wednesday remanded 32 police officers in custody pending trial for membership of a terrorist organization, a judicial official said.

They were among 36 Istanbul officers arrested earlier in the week as part of an investigation into users of the ByLock messaging app, the official said on condition of anonymity due to restrictions on speaking to the media. The remaining four were released under judicial control.

ByLock was allegedly used by members of the Fetullah Terrorist Organization (FETO), which is said to have been behind the July 15 coup attempt.

The smart phone app is believed to have been cracked by Turkish security agencies before the coup, prompting the plotters to switch to the WhatsApp messaging service but not before tens of thousands of FETO suspects had been identified.

Led by U.S.-based Fetullah Gulen, FETO is accused of orchestrating the coup plot, which saw 246 people martyred, as well as being behind a long-running campaign to overthrow the state through the infiltration of Turkish institutions, particularly the military, police and judiciary.

Reporting by Muhammed Enes Can and Yunus Ege; Writing by Ahmet Sait Akcay