Police detain dozens of former Istanbul stock exchange staff over Gülen links

ISTANBUL

Police on May 12 detained 62 suspects in raids targeting former employees of the Istanbul stock exchange over alleged links to U.S.-based Islamic preacher Fethullah Gülen, widely believed to have been behind the July 2016 coup attempt. 

Some 102 detention warrants were issued after Borsa Istanbul notified the authorities of the former employees who were sacked due to suspected links to what the Turkish government calls the Fethullahist Terror Organization (FETÖ). 

Raids were carried out on addresses, targeting suspects who were removed from their posts at Borsa Istanbul as well as those who allegedly used the ByLock messaging application linked to the Gülen movement in the wake of the thwarted coup. 

Four suspects were determined to be abroad and raids were carried out in six provinces, including Istanbul, the Black Sea province of Giresun, the northwestern provinces of Bursa and Balıkesir, the Central Anatolian province of Kayseri, and the capital Ankara. 

Some of the suspects are thought to have performed transactions on behalf of Bank Asya, a bank that was seized by the state over its links to FETÖ, on Gülen’s order in 2013 and 2014. 

Other suspects were members of associations that were closed down with state of emergency decrees, according to state-run Anadolu Agency. 

Some 104 raids were carried out in Istanbul and two were carried out in each of the five provinces. 
Anadolu Agency reported that the suspects included former managers, deputy managers and experts working in Borsa Istanbul. 

Elsewhere, 38 detention warrants were issued on May 12 as a part of an investigation launched by the Ankara Gölbaşı Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office into FETÖ-linked education institutions that were closed with the state of emergency.

Operations were carried out in 12 provinces and 16 people were detained, including suspected ByLock users.