Turkey Remands Over 47,000 People Accused of Links to Gulen

Turkey has remanded 47,155 people suspected of having links to the US-based Islamic cleric Fethullah Gulen, who is believed to have masterminded an attempted coup in July 2016, country’s Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu said.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) – Those remanded include police officers, military men, judges and prosecutors as well as local administrators among others.

“Among the remanded are 10,732 police officers, 7,643 soldiers, and 168 generals. 2,575 are judges and prosecutors. 26,177 are civilians, [and] 208 are local administrators," Soylu said, as quoted by the Anadolu news agency.

According to Soylu, a total of 113,260 arrests have been carried out since the defeated coup.

He added that 863 other suspects remained at large.

On July 15, 2016, an attempted coup took place in Turkey and was suppressed the following day. Ankara has accused Gulen and his followers designated as Fethullahist Gulen Terrorist Organization (FETO) of playing a key role in the failed coup. Gulen has denied all the accusations.