Columnist and former prosecutor Gültekin Avcı, who was released after spending some nine months behind bars as part of a case involving conspiracy allegations against the Iranian-backed terrorist organization Tawhid-Salam, has again been arrested over alleged links to a July 15 coup attempt.
Izmır police raided his house in Karabağlar and detained Avcı on Thursday.
Arrested in September 2015 by an İstanbul court on charges of attempting to overthrow the government by means of seven columns he had written, Avcı said upon his release from Silivri Prison in early June that he had not been treated like a human being in jail.
Avcı’s arrest on Thursday came as the latest of what many call a massive purge initiated following the July 15 coup attempt.
Turkey survived a military coup attempt that killed over 240 people and wounded a thousand others, on July 15. Immediately after the putsch, the government along with President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan pinned the blame on the Gülen movement and launched a widespread purge aimed at cleansing sympathizers of the movement from within state institutions, dehumanizing its popular figures and putting them in custody.
Some 82,000 people have been purged from state bodies, nearly 40,000 detained and 20,000 arrested since the coup attempt. Arrestees include journalists, judges, prosecutors, police and military officers, academics, governors and even a comedian. (Turkey Purge)
