Turkish Justice Minister, Bekir Bozdag, said on Wednesday in Istanbul as the government carried out another crackdown, that 32,000 people have been arrested since the failed coup in July.
Bozdag explained that among those arrested, some are remanded in custody, while others have been freed on bail.
He added: “Government has also fired by decree more than 50,000 civil servants and suspended tens of thousands more.”
The minister said government has released some 38,000 prisoners, jailed before the coup, to free up space for the wave of new arrests, all of whom are accused of having some links to the coup an the alleged mastermind, Fethullah Gulen.
Bozdag said further that government also planned to build dozens of new prisons, amid reports of overcrowding.
The July 15 coup d’état attempt in Turkey saw tanks rolled onto the streets of Ankara and Istanbul.
Uniformed soldiers blocked the famous Bosphorus Bridge connecting the European and Asian sides of Istanbul.
The attempt was carried out by a faction within the Turkish Armed Forces that organised themselves as the Peace at Home Council.
Media outlets were forced off air and social media experienced outages.
Shortly before midnight local time, a faction of the military issued a statement, saying the “political administration has lost all legitimacy and has been forced to withdraw”.
Meanwhile, the Turkish government blamed the coup on Fethullah Gulen, a US-based Turkish cleric, who denied the charges.
Ankara is demanding his extradition from the United States.
Gulen said that he would obey any extradition ruling from the United States and insisted that he had nothing to do with the uprising.
Source: Today.ng
