UPDATE - Turkish police detain 5 more ByLock suspects

UPDATES WITH REMAND OF 40 POLICE OFFICERS

By Sertac Bulur, Orhan Onur Gemici, Muhammed Enes Can and Murat Kaya

ANKARA/ISTANBUL (AA) – Five more suspects in a secret smartphone app case linked to the July 15 coup plot were arrested in Turkey on Thursday.

The suspects were detained by Ankara’s Anti-Smuggling and Organized Crime Department teams in an operation that began Wednesday morning and took place in 13 provinces. The operation is targeting a total of 215 police personnel, including 147 high-ranking officers.

An Istanbul court later on Thursday remanded 40 police officers in custody.

The suspects, who allegedly used a smartphone-messaging app ByLock, are accused of "being members of an armed terrorist organization."

Turkish police said 121 people had been detained across Turkey so far over using of the encrypted messaging service.

ByLock is said to have been used by members of the Fetullah Terrorist Organization (FETO), which the government has said was behind the attempted takeover, which martyred 241 people and wounded nearly 2,200 others.

The app is believed to have been cracked by Turkish security agencies before the coup, prompting the plotters to switch to the WhatsApp messaging service but not before tens of thousands of FETO suspects had been identified.

Turkey accuses FETO, which is led by U.S.-based Fetullah Gulen, of organizing the defeated coup as well as a long-running campaign to overthrow the state through the infiltration of Turkish institutions, particularly the military, police, and judiciary.