UPDATE: Turkey remands in custody 50 FETO-linked soldiers

UPDATES WITH ARRESTEE NUMBERS

By Savas Guler, Cemil Murat Budak and Tanju Ozkaya

KONYA/ANKARA (AA) – A total of 50 soldiers and three other people were remanded into custody for suspected links to Fetullah Terrorist Organization (FETO), the group behind the 2016 defeated deadly coup in Turkey, according to judicial sources on Tuesday.

Prosecutors in Ankara remanded 50 active-duty gendarmerie personnel and three so-called "covert imams" into custody for periodically and successively communicating with other FETO members via pay phones, chief public prosecutor’s office in Ankara said in a statement.

In a separate statement, the prosecutors said 39 suspects were arrested in an operation by security forces.

The suspects are accused of using ByLock, an encrypted smartphone app linked to the group.

A hunt for the remaining suspects is underway.

In another operation based in central Konya province, chief public prosecutor’s office issued an arrest warrant for 53 active soldiers due to their suspected links to the so-called "covert imams" of FETO terror group.

So far, a total of 10 suspects have been arrested in police operations conducted in 28 provinces.

FETO and its U.S.-based leader Fetullah Gulen orchestrated the defeated coup on 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.

* Writing by Gozde Bayar