UPDATE 3 - Turkey: Arrest warrants out for 63 FETO terror suspects

UPDATES WITH MORE ARRESTS

By Safak Yel, Baris Kilic, Tanju Ozkaya and Recep Bilek

ANKARA (AA) - Turkish prosecutors issued arrest warrants for 63 people for their suspected links to Fetullah Terrorist Organization (FETO), judicial sources said Tuesday.

Prosecutors in Aegean Izmir province issued warrants for 14 suspects, including a dismissed second degree police chief, who were found to have communicated with the group’s "covert imams" -- senior FETO members -- said one of the sources, who asked not to be named due to restrictions on speaking to the media.

Meanwhile, prosecutors in capital Ankara issued arrest warrants for another 49 suspects on charges of using terror group’s encrypted smartphone messaging app ByLock and for being customers of Bank Asya, a FETO-linked bank, another source said.

23 suspects have been arrested, while an operation is underway to catch the remaining suspects.

In an operation in the Black Sea province of Samsun, four more suspects were arrested for allegedly funding FETO terror group, according to a security source.

FETO and its U.S.-based leader Fetullah Gulen orchestrated the defeated coup of July 15, 2016, which left 251 people martyred and nearly 2,200 injured.

Turkey 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. *Writing by Erdogan Cagatay Zontur and Zehra Nur Duz.