ISTANBUL
Two more policemen were sent to court Friday on charges of an attempted coup and political and military espionage related to an ongoing "parallel state" probe.
The suspects, former chief of Istanbul Organized Crime Control Bureau Nazmi Ardic and police commissioner Ali Kavlak, were sent to court once police finished questioning them.
Earlier in the day, 27 policemen had been referred to court.
All 29 suspects were detained across 20 Turkish provinces on Monday on charges of establishing and being a member of a criminal organization, political espionage, forgery, illegal storage of personal data and deleting computer data.
The "parallel state" is an alleged group of Turkish bureaucrats and senior officials embedded in the country's institutions, including the judiciary and the police, which allegedly wants to undermine the current Turkish government.
The government alleges that the clandestine network is run by the U.S.-based preacher Fetullah Gulen and that his so-called Gulen movement is responsible for masterminding a plot to overthrow the elected Turkish government.
Turkey wants Gulen to be extradited from the U.S., where he has lived since 1999. An Istanbul criminal court had issued an arrest warrant for Gulen as part of a probe into the parallel state operation.
