32,000 arrested in coup probe

‘Turkey needs to build more courts’

ISTANBUL, Sept 28, (Agencies): Turkey said Wednesday that courts have placed 32,000 suspects under arrest on charges of links to a group run by the US-based preacher blamed for the July coup bid, as the country braces for the most extensive trials in its history.

Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag told NTV television that 70,000 people had been investigated after the attempted putsch on July 15 and of them 32,000 remanded in custody.

“This process is continuing,” he said. The numbers of those arrested marks an increase of more than 10,000 from those previously given by the government.

Bozdag said that there could be new arrests, while some of those currently arrested could still be freed under judicial control or freed entirely.

Some two-and-a-half months after the coup attempt aimed at ousting President Recep Tayyip Erdogan led to a crackdown unprecedented in Turkey’s modern history, there is still no indication as to when trials might start.

The trials of tens of thousands of people will be the biggest legal process in Turkey’s history and are set to put the system under unprecedented pressure.

Turkey has already granted some 38,000 convicts early release in an apparent bid to create more space in cramped jails for the coup suspects.

Trials

“It is not entirely clear how the trials will be carried out,” Bozdag acknowledged. He said trials would take place in cities across the country and not in one single venue. Bozdag said there was no need to create a special trial venue in Istanbul as capacity was sufficient. But he said one was needed in Ankara and work is taking place for a trial venue at Sincan outside the capital.

“People are not going to be put on trial in just one place but trials will take place in all of Turkey,” he said.

The purge after the coup has touched every sector in Turkey with those arrested ranging from top former generals to journalists to sweet pastry magnates. Youth and Sports Ministry Akif Cagatay Kilic told the Anadolu news agency Wednesday that 322 people had been suspended from his ministry on suspicion of being affiliated to US-based preacher Fethullah Gulen, accused of orchestrating the attempted overthrow.

Meanwhile, Turkey may have to build new courthouses to cope with thousands of prosecutions over July’s failed coup, Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag said on Wednesday, as the number of people arrested reached 32,000.

Detained

Authorities have detained or sacked people from across local government, the military, the media and the judiciary, and asked the United States to deport Pennsylvania-based cleric Fethullah Gulen, accusing him of organising the aborted uprising.

Gulen, a former ally of President Tayyip Erdogan now branded a terrorist by Ankara, denies any involvement in the uprising which killed more than 240 people as rogue soldiers commandeered fighter jets, helicopters and tanks.

One new court room was already under construction in the town of Sincan, near the capital Ankara, Bozdag told private broadcaster NTV.

“We will build new courthouses as needed ... Some defendants be prosecuted for membership in a terror organisation,” he added. He did not expect mass trials with “thousands of defendants” and added that some of the 32,000 people in custody over suspected links to Gulen could be freed as the legal process advanced.

US officials have promised to respond to the extradition request for Gulen in a couple of days, Bozdag said in comments broadcast live, adding that he would seek a meeting at the US Department of Justice this week.