In an effort to keep its current formation in Türkiye alive, the Gülenist Terror Group (FETÖ), the orchestrator of the bloody 2016 coup attempt, has been working to maintain a foothold in prisons, keep up the morale among its jailed members by handing out new tasks and prevent them from becoming collaborators, according to a report in Turkish newspaper Sabah.
The terrorist group has been silencing unrest with the threat that informants will be "condemned to eternal fire" and "those serving time will be exempt from torture in the afterlife," Sabah wrote.
Reports detailing investigations showed the group has been trying to sustain its financial arm with payments referred to as "aliment" and pricing escape routes for its members.
New information has also revealed the group’s extensions in Türkiye’s penal institutions are in two different formations, with the first holding posts like "prison manager," "execution protection officer" and "administrative officer," while the second group being prisoners and their families.
Operatives still at large include judges, prosecutors, lawyers, as well as imams (Muslim clerics), tasked with delivering FETÖ’s message of silence to members who want to confess.
Imams preach to members that collaborators will "forever burn in hell" and those who are in prison will "be forgiven all of their sins and be able to help their families reach heaven," while lawyers work to convince convicted members they will be paid "a hefty sum" once their sentence is over, that their case will be denied by the European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR) and thus they will lose any chance of compensation.
Meanwhile, the group also has a network of "persuaders" in prisons who are tasked with keeping newly convicted members loyal to FETÖ. They reportedly tell members who are eager for rank and status they will be rewarded with even higher positions once they are released. If the member has a religious weakness, the persuader promises "paradise."
A group called "victim superintendents" is responsible for making sure FETÖ convicts don’t feel "alone" while another called "army official" spreads sensationalistic news like torture to the families and "money-spinners" collect payments from businesspeople for jailed members, security reports showed.
FETÖ and its U.S.-based leader Fetullah Gülen orchestrated the defeated coup on July 15, 2016, which left 251 people dead and thousands more injured.
The terrorist group, which had infiltrators in law enforcement, the judiciary and the bureaucracy, still has backers in the army ranks and civil institutions, though they managed to disguise their loyalty, as operations and investigations since the coup attempt have indicated.
Hundreds of investigations launched after the attempt sped up the collapse of the group’s far-reaching network in the country. FETÖ was already under the spotlight following two separate attempts to overthrow the government in 2013 through its infiltrators in the judiciary and law enforcement.