Eight policemen arrested in mass operation at police departments

Eight of 14 police officers who were sent to court with demands for their arrest as part of operations targeting the “parallel state” were arrested July 25.

A melee erupted at the courthouse when the arrested officers attacked their colleagues who were to transfer them to the prison.

Two of the police officers were released, while four others were released subject to judicial monitoring later in the day. 

Another eight officers, who were sent to the Istanbul Public Prosecutors’ Office on July 24, were also released after being questioned.

The officers face charges of “crime against the government, forgery of official documents, obtaining data regarding the safety of the state, professional misconduct, damaging, changing and destroying data and violating the confidentiality of communication.”

Some 114 officers have been detained so far as part of the two separate investigations conducted on July 22 and 23 in Istanbul and other cities, including Ankara, İzmir and Diyarbakır. The remaining officers under detention at the Istanbul Police Department are expected to be sent to court July 25 following questioning by prosecutors.

In two operations, dozens of senior police officers suspected of being linked to the Fethullah Gülen movement, or what the government calls the “parallel state,” were detained on the grounds of espionage and illegal wiretapping, with Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan indicating that the probes would be widened.

“This isn’t done – this is just the beginning. Those who have threatened our national security will be called to account for this. I declare that I will go after this parallel structure until the end, after I...