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Ankara prosecutor launches investigation into campaign to stop unlawful strip-searches

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The Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office has launched an investigation into recent social media posts and news reports exposing the extensive use of strip-searches in prisons, claiming that they showed signs of “deliberate” and “organized” action.

The latest claims of strip-searches were brought to public attention by pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) deputy Ă–mer Faruk GergerlioÄŸlu, which prompted scores of women as well as men to share on social media their experiences of strip-searches.

The public prosecutor’s office in Ankara said in a statement on Tuesday that it has launched an ex officio investigation over signs detected by the office that “support the suspicion that the content was being shared to legitimize FETO’s [a derogatory acronym used by Ankara to refer to the GĂ¼len movement] designs on the Turkish Republic and its constitutional order.”

Ankara accuses the GĂ¼len movement, a faith-based group inspired by Muslim cleric Fethullah GĂ¼len, of instigating a failed coup in 2016 and labels it a terrorist organization. The movement strongly denies any involvement.

According to a statement from Turkish Interior Minister SĂ¼leyman Soylu on Nov. 26, a total of 292,000 people have been detained while 96,000 others have been jailed due to alleged links to the GĂ¼len movement since the failed coup. The minister said there are currently 25,655 people in Turkey’s prisons who were jailed due to links to the GĂ¼len movement.

Since the coup attempt, followers of the GĂ¼len movement have been subjected to a massive crackdown, with the Turkish government and pro-government media outlets demonizing its members.

In addition to the thousands who were jailed, scores of other GĂ¼len movement followers had to flee Turkey to avoid the government crackdown.

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