Date posted: October 2, 2016

The 2nd Criminal Court in the southern province of Hatay rejected an indictment prepared about the Fethullah Gülen Terrorist Organization (FETÖ), a term used by the Turkish government to describe the Gülen movement, saying that there is no such a terrorist organization officially identified.

Office of Hatay Chief Public Prosecutor prepared an indictment about N.K. who is currently under arrest over charges of being member to (FETÖ) and Parallel State Structure (PDY).

Judges unanimously voted against the indictment and rejected it, citing that there is no officially designated terrorist organization such as (FETÖ). The judges also said reference to use of ByLock application by N.K. cannot be accepted as evidence of terrorist organization membership.

The court ruling may set a precedent for similar cases given government’s massive purges and crackdown targeting the movement. But when two judges decided to release police officers and chairman of a television channel last year over lack of concrete evidence for wrongdoing, top judicial body HSYK dismissed them. The judges were later jailed over ruling to release detained police officers.

How the government will react to the decision by Hatay court remains to be seen.

The government blames Gülen for the coup attempt on July 15. The US-based Islamic scholar rejects any link to the attempted coup. Since July, the government has either dismissed or sacked more than 100,000 public officials over alleged links to the movement.

Source: Turkish Minute , October 2, 2016

Tags: Defamation of Hizmet | Hizmet (Gulen) movement | Military coups in Turkey | Turkey |