12 FETO suspects arrested in Turkey

By Hakan Mehmet Sahin and Safak Yel

IZMIR / EDIRNE, Turkey (AA) – At least 12 people with suspected links to the Fetullah Terrorist Organization (FETO) were arrested in operations across Turkey on Monday.

Four suspects were nabbed while trying to flee to Greece from Turkey’s northwestern Edirne province, according to security sources, who requested anonymity due to restrictions on speaking to the media.

The suspects are an ex-prosecutor and three former judges, all of whom were sacked from their work due to alleged links to the FETO terror group, the sources said.

Three people who were helping them flee to Greece were also arrested, the sources added.

In the Aegean province of Izmir, eight more FETO suspects were arrested in different operations.

Two suspects – an ex-police officer and a former non-commissioned military officer – were apprehended by gendarmerie forces.

Both suspects were previously dismissed from service and there were warrants out for their arrests, the sources said.

Six more people, including two women, were caught while they were waiting to board a boat to escape from Turkey.

There was an arrest warrant out for one of the six suspects, while the others have cases filed against them for being members of the FETO terror group.

All six of the suspects were doctors who were fired from their jobs for their FETO links, according to the sources.

FETO and its US-based leader Fetullah Gulen orchestrated the defeated coup of July 2016 in Turkey, in which 251 people were killed and 2,734 injured.​​​​​​​

Ankara accuses FETO of being behind a long-running campaign to overthrow the state through the infiltration of Turkish institutions, particularly the military, police and judiciary.

* Writing by Dilan Pamuk in Ankara