Two children of Nejat Atilla Demirhan, a member of the military who is under arrest on coup charges, have also been jailed.
A Mersin court on Friday ruled for the arrest Demirhan’s two children, T.D. and N.R.D, both university students, as part of an investigation into the Gülen movement, which the government accuses of masterminding a July 15 coup attempt.
While an indictment prepared in the aftermath of the coup attempt seeks three consecutive life sentences for Demirhan and 28 other suspects, his children were put in pre-trial arrest for having used the ByLock mobile application.
ByLock is considered by Turkish authorities to be the top communication tool among followers of the movement.
Tens of thousands of civil servants, police officers and businessmen have either been dismissed or arrested for using ByLock since the failed coup attempt last July.
Despite President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) having blamed the Gülen movement for a failed coup on July 15, an indictment drafted by the İstanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office says the majority of officers allegedly linked to the movement did not participate in the coup attempt, Al Jazeera Turk reported on Friday.
According to the report, only two out of 47 colonels who were identified as being Gülen movement members by a secret witness took part in the coup attempt. Similarly, only 300 out of 800 officers who were claimed to be using ByLock participated in the failed coup.
(Turkey Purge)
