Turkish police late on Thursday detained a niece of Fethullah Gülen, a US-based Turkish cleric who is accused of masterminding a 2016 coup attempt despite his strong denial of any involvement, the state-run Anadolu news agency reported.
Zeynep Gülen, 30, daughter of the late Salih Gülen, was driving a car when she was stopped by officers in İstanbul’s Beykoz district.
The police brought her to headquarters after she presented a fake identity card. Her fingerprints later revealed her true identity.
Turkey launched a large-scale crackdown targeting Gülen followers after the failed coup, conducting mass detentions on an almost daily basis.
Yesterday, Zehra Bozkurt, the daughter of a high-ranking member of the Gülen movement, was detained, along with 16 other followers.
The chief public prosecutors in Ankara and Adana on Friday issued detention warrants for 95 suspects over alleged Gülen links.
At least 70 people were detained in the resulting police operations, the report said, adding that one of the detainees was a cousin of Adil Öksüz, a prime suspect in the 2016 coup attempt.
Following the abortive putsch, more than 150,000 people were removed from state jobs while in excess of 30,000 others were jailed and some 600,000 people have been investigated on allegations of terrorism.
