An Ankara court has arrested a lieutenant who was dismissed from the military and his wife for watching a video of Fethullah Gülen, who is accused by Turkish authorities of masterminding a failed coup attempt in Turkey last summer.
Acting on a tip, police in the capital city had raided a cybercafé in the Belsin neighborhood on Wednesday, taking the former military officer and his wife into custody. The couple was referred to a court in Ankara after questioning at the Ankara Police Department.
According a report in the Birgün daily on Wednesday, M.M., a former lieutenant at the Ankara Beytepe Gendarmerie School, was purged from the Turkish military as part of an investigation into his links to the Gülen movement.
He and his wife, Y.M., were in an Internet café when police detained them after an informant claimed they were watching a video of Gülen.
Birgün said police seized three mobile phones from Y.M. on which the ByLock application was installed. ByLock is a smart phone application that authorities believe is a communication tool between members of the Gülen movement.
Turkey survived a military coup attempt on July 15 that killed over 240 people and wounded more than a thousand others. Immediately after the putsch, the government along with President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan pinned the blame on the Gülen movement.
Over 135,000 people, including thousands within the military, have been purged due to their real or alleged connection to the Gülen movement since the coup attempt, according to a statement by the labor minister on Jan. 10.
As of March 23, 94,982 people were being held without charge, with an additional 47,128 in pre-trial detention due to their alleged links to the movement. A total of 7,317 academics were purged as well as 4,272 judges and prosecutors, who were dismissed due to alleged involvement in the July 15 coup attempt.