31 March 2017•Update: 03 April 2017
By Aylin Sirikli & Halil Demir
ANKARA
The Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor's Office issued arrest warrants for almost a hundred suspects Friday as part of its probe into the Fetullah Terrorist Organization (FETO), according to a judicial source.
Police raided various addresses across 18 provinces to apprehend 98 suspects including employees of FETO-linked educational institutions, the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to restrictions on talking to the media, said.
All have been accused of being members of an armed terrorist organization, financing terrorism, terror recruiting.
The suspects are believed to have used the ByLock mobile app, a suspected means of communication for FETO members.
The app appears to have been cracked by Turkish security agencies before the July 15 coup attempt, prompting the plotters to switch to the WhatsApp messaging service but not before tens of thousands of FETO suspects had been identified.
Meanwhile, Istanbul prosecutors on Friday issued arrest warrants for 59 former police officers who are suspected of having used the ByLock app.
Police launched operations across 14 provinces to arrest the suspects, who had been discharged under a previous statutory decree.
The measures are part of an ongoing probe into the defeated coup that left 249 people martyred and nearly 2,200 wounded.
Led by U.S.-based Fetullah Gulen, FETO is accused of orchestrating Turkey’s July 15, 2016, coup plot as well as being behind a long-running campaign to overthrow the state through the infiltration of Turkish institutions, particularly the military, police, and the judiciary.
