Turkish regime jails a judge and continues to arrest the opposition

A Turkish court has sentenced a former judge to more than 11 years in prison for allegedly “belonging to an armed terrorist organization,” a reference to the group of Fethullah Gulen, whom Ankara accuses of masterminding the alleged coup in 2016.

 

This came according to “Sabah” Turkish newspaper which is connected to the regime of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Wednesday.

 

The 9th Circuit of the Supreme Court of Ankara sentenced to 11 years, 9 months and 15 days in prison for its former Judge Osman Yordaquel, who rejected all charges against him, and confirmed that he does not belong to the Gülen movement.

 

Judge Ahmed Barbaroglu, a former member of the Supreme Council of Judges and Public Prosecutors, was sentenced to 12 years, 9 months and 27 days in prison on Tuesday, the day after another 10-year prison sentence was handed down on Monday to Sharif Bak, a member Former Administrative Court, for being charged with the same charge.

 

On January 11, Turkish authorities dismissed 17 people “judges and a prosecutors” for allegedly contacting the Gulen group.

 

Erdogan’s regime has expelled more than 4,500 judges and prosecutors since the alleged coup attempt because of their links to Gulen.

 

Erdogan and his AK Party allege that Gulen is accused of orchestrating the coup attempt, which he strongly denies, while the Turkish opposition says that the events of July 15 night were a “masterminded coup” to eliminate opponents of soldiers and members of civil society organizations.

 

Turkish authorities have been conducting regular arrests of thousands since the coup attempt, under the name of contact with the Gulen group.

 

On September 23, the regime’s interior minister, Suleyman Soylu, announced that 33,000 people had been dismissed from various Ministry of Interior security structures since 2013 after the alleged coup attempt in 2016, allegedly in connection with Gülen.

 

On March 10, the same minister revealed the arrest of 511 thousand people, including 30 thousand and 821 arrested, in the context of operations targeting the Gulen group and the Kurdistan Workers Party, since the alleged coup attempt.

 

On January 3, Suwailo announced that there were 750,239 detainees in 2018, including more than 52,000 on suspicion of belonging to Gulen.