April 22, 2016•Update: April 26, 2016
ISTANBUL
Seven people, including the head of one of Turkey’s leading construction companies, were remanded in custody Friday, accused of links to the Gulenist organization, a judicial official said.
They were arrested Monday in a round-up of more than 100 suspected supporters of the group, known as the Fetullah Terrorist Organization (FETO) or “parallel state”, which has been accused of attempting to overthrow Turkey’s government.
Halit Dumankaya, executive director of the Dumankaya construction group, which sponsors Turkish football club Galatasaray, was among those who appeared in court in Istanbul.
Alongside three other defendants, he is charged with financing a terror group, FETO, the official said, speaking on customary condition of anonymity. The remaining suspects are alleged to be members of an “armed terrorist group”.
Monday’s arrests included employees of Bank Asya, which the government seized last year, as well as other executives and business figures in Istanbul and nine other provinces across Turkey.
FETO, led by U.S.-based preacher Fetullah Gulen, runs a network of schools and commercial enterprises in Turkey and around the world. The organization is said to have inserted its supporters into Turkish state institutions, particularly the criminal justice system, in a bid to seize power.
Since early 2014, investigations into the parallel state have seen thousands of public offficials, including police and prosecutors, arrested or reassigned while recent operations have focused on the companies with links to the group.
