Turkey Orders Arrest Of 47 Ex-Employees Of Zaman Newspaper
Istanbul prosecutors Wednesday ordered the detention of 47 former employees of Zaman, a newspaper until recently associated with the Gulen group, which Turkey accuses of being behind the July 15 deadly coup attempt.
Officers in Istanbul also started searching the houses of those people, who are suspected of having links to the Fethullah Gulen, an Islamic scholar who has lived in self-imposed exile in the United States for decades.
Suspects include former executives of the newspaper as well as certain columnists, police said.
The dissident paper’s management was taken over by the government this March, when an Istanbul court decided to appoint trustees for the Feza Gazetecilik Media Group, which includes Zaman.
Following the failed coup, Turkey has stepped up pressure on the US to extradite Gulen. US officials have said they will review the case.
