17 policemen arrested in probe into ‘parallel state’

The Istanbul Criminal Courts of Peace decided on the arrests of 17 police officers, including former Istanbul Deputy Chief of Police Mahir Çakallı and Istanbul’s former Organized Crime Department Chief Nazmi Ardıç, out of a total of 29 policemen who had been detained on April 13 on grounds of “partially attempting to obstruct the Turkish Republic from doing its job.” 
The 29 suspects had been detained in an operation launched in 20 different provinces by the Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office Terror and Organized Crime Branch on charges of “espionage, forgery, illegal wiretapping, saving personal data and attempting to distract the Turkish Republic from its duties,” within the scope of the probe against the “parallel state,” allegedly led by self-exiled Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen, who lives in the U.S.

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has accused Gülen and his supporters in the judiciary and police of seeking to establish a “parallel state” and orchestrating a corruption investigation targeting Erdoğan’s inner circle in December 2013 as part of a coup attempt.

On April 20, 12 detainees were released on probation with a ban on leaving the country. 

Turkey wants Gülen extradited from the U.S., where he has been living since 1999.

An Istanbul criminal court has issued an arrest warrant for Gülen as part of the probe.