Emre İper, who works as a finance manager at the Cumhuriyet daily, has been arrested over use of a smart phone application known as ByLock.
İper was detained by police following a raid on his house early on April 14 and then sent to jail by the İstanbul 12th Penal Court of Peace on Tuesday.
ByLock is considered by Turkish authorities to be the top communication tool among followers of the Gülen movement, which is accused by the government of masterminding a failed coup attempt on July 15, 2016.
Tens of thousands of civil servants, police officers and businessmen have either been dismissed or arrested for using ByLock since the failed coup attempt.
The Cumhuriyet daily has recently been the target of a government-led crackdown on critical media outlets in the country as 10 journalists and executives from the daily, including its Editor-in-Chief Murat Sabuncu, were arrested by the İstanbul 9th Penal Court of Peace in November.
They face allegations of aiding the terrorist Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), the far-left Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party/Front (DHKP/C) and FETÖ.
“FETÖ” is a derogatory term and acronym for the “Fethullahist Terrorist Organization,” coined by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and the Justice and Development Party (AKP) government to refer to the Gülen movement. (TurkeyPurge)
