by Al-Akhbar
Turkish authorities arrested police officers on Wednesday in new nationwide raids over an alleged plot to overthrow the Islamic-rooted government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
The operation, which targeted 15 police officers in seven different Turkish provinces, came after an Istanbul prosecutor issued arrest warrants for 17 officers, four of whom are senior police officers.
Apart from wiretapping, the police officers have been accused of forging official documents and violating privacy of individuals.
The sweeps were the sixth such in a sequence of coordinated raids aimed at cracking down on what Erdogan has described as a “parallel state” within the security forces loyal to his former ally turned foe, the US-based cleric Fethullah Gulen.
The probe is linked to last year’s stunning corruption allegations against Erdogan and his inner circle that were based on wiretapped telephone conversations.
The Erdogan-led authorities have since sacked hundreds of police and prosecutors believed to be linked to Gulen and introducing curbs on the judiciary and the Internet.
(Anadolu, Al-Akhbar)