The judiciary launched 615 separate investigations into the criminal activities of the Gülenist Terror Organization (FETÖ) since the illegal group tried to topple the democratically-elected government in late 2013.
While the members of the command structure of the shadowy group mostly fled abroad, the police and judiciary went after its local network, filing charges against hundreds of operatives that had infiltrated state institutions, the media and private sector. Criminal investigations covered the length and breadth of the entire country.
Serious progress has been made against the group, led by the fugitive imam Fethullah Gülen, who is currently living in exile in his estate in Pennsylvania, U.S. Indictments prepared against members of the group are mainly based on testimonies of witnesses and the accused, various documents and data seized from the group's various centers of activities and financial and criminal documents collected by the group over the years. The group, which is known to have invented spurious evidence to target officials and groups it deemed as opponents, previously launched several widely covered cases to prosecute its enemies.
Prosecutors launched 250 separate criminal cases against the group and its members, 50 of which are currently being actively tried at courts while the remainder await contributing evidence from various institutions.
Investigations have led to the detention of around 2,600 suspects, 600 of whom were arrested by courts. Around 1,200 suspects have been released pending their trials while another 800 are under police supervision.
The courts have arrested 18 "provincial imams" of the group, which is being accused of crimes against the constitutional system, money laundering, blackmail and espionage.
The Gülen Movement, which runs a global network of schools and businesses, is also under serious pressure, with the group's schools in the U.S. and several other countries facing fraud charges.
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