Turkish police arrest fugitive FETO member

By Savas Guler

KONYA, Turkey (AA) - A fugitive member of the Fetullah Terrorist Organization (FETO), the group behind the 2016 defeated coup in Turkey, was arrested in the central Konya province, police said on Thursday.

In a statement, the police said the suspect, identified only by the initials A.K., was learnt to be in Konya.

The suspect, who had worked at the Kocaeli police headquarters, was dismissed in 2016 as part of probe into FETO terror group.

The police raided a house in Konya and nabbed the suspect, who was also found to have been using terror group’s encrypted smartphone messaging app ByLock.

FETO and its US-based leader Fetullah Gulen orchestrated the defeated coup of July 15, 2016, in which 251 people were martyred and 2,734 injured.

Ankara accuses FETO of being behind a long-running campaign to overthrow the state through the infiltration of Turkish institutions, particularly the military, police, and judiciary.