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Justice Minister Bozdağ says 50,504 arrested since coup attempt

Turkish Justice Minister Bekir Bozdağ / AFP

Turkish Justice Minister Bekir Bozdağ said on Friday that since a failed coup attempt last July, 50,504 people have been arrested and 168,801 are the subject of legal proceedings for their alleged involvement in the organization of the coup, the Diken news website reported.

While 48,731 were released on judicial probation without prior arrest, 8,551 were released on judicial probation following their arrest.

“A total of 615 people are in detention, arrest warrants have been issued for 8,069 people and 433 were released without judicial probation,” said Bozdağ.

The military coup attempt on July 15 killed over 240 people and wounded more than a thousand others. Immediately after the putsch, the Justice and Development Party (AKP) government along with President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan pinned the blame on the Gülen movement.

Fethullah Gülen, who inspired the movement, strongly denied having any role in the failed coup and called for an international investigation into it, but President Erdoğan — calling the coup attempt “a gift from God” — and the government initiated a widespread purge aimed at cleansing sympathizers of the movement from within state institutions, dehumanizing its popular figures and putting them in custody.

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