Turkey’s president on Wednesday said more than 20,000 Gülen movement members have been convicted of various crimes, while over 10,000 others are in pretrial detention, the state-run Anadolu news agency reported.
“Now, there are 30,559 FETÖ members in jail, including 20,226 convicted, and 10,333 in pretrial detention,” Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said at an event in Ankara marking the 174th anniversary of the Turkish police force.
FETÖ is a derogatory term coined by the Erdoğan government after it launched a crackdown targeting followers of the Gülen movement.
Stating that the fight against the Gülen movement is continuing, Erdoğan also said more than 31,000 law enforcement staff have been dismissed.
“In excess of 15,000 military members have been dismissed, while over 4,000 judges and prosecutors have been fired from the judiciary,” he added.
Turkey accuses the movement of orchestrating a 2016 coup attempt, although it strongly denies any involvement.
Since than 140,000 public servants have been sacked, while 500,000 people were subjected to prosecution over Gülen links.