İ.K., a former deputy police chief in Gaziantep who was dismissed by a government decree after a failed coup last year, got detained when he visited a state of emergency bureau in Sivas to object to his dismissal and ultimately arrested by a court on Saturday.
According to a Sözcü daily story on Saturday, İ.K. was detained in Sivas Governor’s Office after officials found out after an ID check that there was a detention warrant against him.
Following procedural works in Sivas Police Department, a Sivas court arrested İ.K. as part of an investigation in Gaziantep into Gülen movement that is accused by Turkish authorities of being behind the failed coup on July 15, 2016.
Despite US-based Turkish Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen and the movement having denied any involvement in the failed coup last year, the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan put the blame on the movement and launched a widespread witch-hunt against its followers.
As part the government witch-hunt against the movement, more than 146,000 people lost their jobs, some 169,013 faced legal proceedings that left over 125,000 detained and 55,000 in pre-trial arrest and at least 520 children are accompanying their parents in jail, a report by TurkeyPurge.com said.