ISTANBUL: Turkish police detained nearly 100 people in an
investigation of their alleged financial links to U.S.-based Muslim
cleric Fethullah Gulen, a foe of President Tayyip Erdogan, state-run
Anadolu Agency said on Monday.
It said the police operation, focused on Istanbul, was
launched across nine provinces and 88 people have so far been taken into
custody, with prosecutors having issued arrest warrants for 140 people
under the probe.
Among those detained were executives and employees of
Islamic lender Bank Asya, which was founded by followers of Gulen and
seized by the government last year, it said.
The probe is centred on financial support raised for Gulen's
group amounting to some 50 million lira (£12 million), Anadolu added.
Erdogan accuses Gulen of setting up a 'parallel state' and
conspiring to unseat the government with a network of supporters in the
judiciary, police and media. Gulen, whose adherents run schools and are
active in the media sector, denies the charges.
A Turkish court in December 2014 issued an arrest warrant for Gulen,
who has lived in self-imposed exile in the United States since 1999,
accusing him of heading a criminal group.
The two men were allies until police and prosecutors seen as
sympathetic to Gulen opened a corruption probe into Erdogan's inner
circle in 2013. Thousands of police officers, prosecutors and judges
were sacked or reassigned for alleged links to Gulen.
Authorities have seized and shut down opposition media
outlets associated with the Gulen movement as well as targeting
companies run by his followers.
(Writing by Daren Butler; Editing by David Dolan)
- Reuters
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