Turkey: 70 FETO members get jail time

By Serdar Acil, Baris Kilic, Bilal Acar and Durmus Genc

ANKARA / MUGLA, Turkey (AA) – Seventy people were convicted and sentenced to prison Wednesday for being members of the Fetullah Terrorist Organization (FETO), the group behind the 2016 defeated coup, according to a security source.

The Ankara 2nd Heavy Penal Court handed out sentences ranging from six to nearly 15 years.

The seventy were convicted over leaking the civil service recruitment exam -- known as the KPSS – in 2010, which FETO members used to help them infiltrate state institutions.

Among the group convicted were Kubra Gulmez and Kubra Sagun, the wives of former air force Lts. Haldun Gulmez and Bahadir Sagun, who allegedly bombed the hotel where President Recep Tayyip Erdogan stayed at during a vacation in Marmaris on the attempted coup night.

FETO and its U.S.-based leader Fetullah Gulen orchestrated the defeated coup of July 15, 2016 which left 251 people martyred and nearly 2,200 injured.

Ankara also 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.

Separately, in Turkey’s southwestern Mugla province, a FETO suspect who was carrying a fake ID card was arrested at Dalaman Airport, a security source said.

Zahide Uner, known as an aide to alleged FETO fugitive and former Borajet owner Yalcin Ayasli, was planning to cross into Greece, said the source, who asked not to be named due to restrictions on speaking to the media.