Turkish police have arrested at least 75 people over suspected links to the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in Ankara and Istanbul, police sources said, the state-run Anadolu news agency reported.
Police detained 29 of 43 suspects who were being sought as part of operations against ISIL by the Ankara Public Prosecutor’s Office.
Separately, 46 suspects — 43 of them foreign nationals — were detained in Istanbul, a police source said.
In the meantime in Diyarbakır, N.T., who is accused of being the “Diyarbakır emir” of ISIL, was released by a court on Thursday after his second detention, the Cumhuriyet daily reported.
According to the report, court decided to release N.T., who was freed on June 20, 2017 but later detained again, saying that “his arrest would not be [a measured reaction].”
The decision attracted responses on social media.
Levent Üzümcü, a critical actor, tweeted: “Prisons are full of people who did not do and won’t do one millionth [of what this man (N.T.) has done]. Damn your justice!”
Turkey has jailed over 55,000 people including teachers, academics, journalists, women and 668 minors since a failed coup attempt on July 15, 2016 as part of a witch-hunt targeting the faith-based Gülen movement.