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Turkey can arrest 3 ruling party MPs
 Turkey can arrest three MPs from ruling Justice and Development Party as part of the operation against the Fethullah Gulen movement, the Hurriyet newspaper reported Sept. 7.
Reportedly, 48 more MPs from the ruling party are also suspected of having ties with the Gulen movement. However, the country’s authorities haven’t yet confirmed this. Currently, 317 MPs are representing the Justice and Development Party in Turkey’s parliament. According to Turkey’s law, before being arrested, MPs should be deprived of parliamentary immunity. Under Turkey’s Criminal Code, in order to initiate a criminal case, the prosecutor’s office should make an official request to the parliament, after which the parliament’s law commission deprives the MP from the parliamentary immunity. Report: Anti-Erdogan Dissident Arrested in Beirut [AnNahar] Lebanese authorities have arrested in Beirut an opponent of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's rule, a media report said on Wednesday. “The Criminal Investigations Department arrested in Beirut a Turkish anti-Erdogan dissident who is wanted by the Turkish authorities on multiple arrest warrants,” LBCI television reported. Turkey's post-coup crackdown widens [DeutscheWelle] On Wednesday, the chief prosecutor's office in Ankara launched an investigation into 105 leaders suspected to belonging to the Gulen-linked terror organization FETO, Anadolu Agency said. Three journalists working for the "Yenicag" newspaper were arrested and held in a sports hall in Ankara, the nationalist daily reported. A former lawmaker from the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), Turan Yaldir, was also detained in Ankara. He and the three reporters were critics of the Gulen movement, "Yenicag" reported on Wednesday. Meanwhile, a lack of space in the country's overflowing prisons has prompted authorities to release more than 35,000 convicts, excluding those imprisoned for crimes such as rape and murder. Tens of thousands of people - including teachers, journalists, civil servants, soldiers and bureaucrats - have been arrested since a July 15 coup. Hundreds of thousands more have lost their jobs for alleged links with Fethullah Gulen, a US-based cleric accused of spearheading a spiritual movement among Turkish academics and businesses. Turkey Seeks Arrest of Teachers for Using 'Gulen App' [AnNahar] Turkish prosecutors on Tuesday issued arrest warrants for almost 150 teachers who allegedly used an encrypted messaging app employed by followers of the U.S.-based Muslim preacher authorities blame for the botched coup bid, state media said. Police in the central Anatolian city of Kayseri launched an operation with 400 officers in a bid to detain 147 teachers accused of using the app ByLock, the Anadolu news agency said. The teachers, who had already been suspended in the wake of the July 15 coup attempt, are accused of "breaching the constitution", "attempting to bring down the Turkish government", and "membership of an armed terrorist organization," according to the report. Some of the suspects were detained, it said, without providing any exact number. The report did not give further details on what messages were exchanged via the app. Turkish officials have said that the coup plotters used ByLock, a little-known messaging app, to coordinate the conspiracy. However Turkey's National Intelligence Organization (MIT) began decrypting messages sent on ByLock from May last year, the officials have said. This enabled authorities in the wake of the coup to identify tens of thousands of Gulen followers, including top-ranking military personnel. Officials say education was a key sector used by Gulen to spread his influence in Turkey, using loyal teachers and seeking to create a new generation of pupils sympathetic to his ideas. Posted by: Steve White 2016-09-08 |
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