Turkey: Former police chief jailed over FETO conviction

By Sibel Ugurlu and Cansu Dikme

ANKARA (AA) – A northwestern court on Monday sentenced a former police chief to nine years over his links to the Fetullah Terrorist Organization (FETO), according to judicial sources.

The Tekirdag 2nd High Criminal Court ordered a jail term of nine years for Murat Kocabicak -- a former police chief -- on charges of being member of an armed terror organization, the source said on condition of anonymity due to restrictions on talking to the media.

-Arrests

Forty-five suspects were arrested during simultaneous police raids in Istanbul.

The arrests came after the Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office issued arrest warrants for 84 people as part of FETO’s university dormitories infiltration.

The suspects were members of the so-called Association of “Yuksek Tahsil” (Higher Education).

Separately in the central Eskisehir province, three people, including a university student and a teacher candidate, were arrested.

FETO, led by U.S.-based leader Fetullah Gulen, orchestrated the defeated July 2016 coup in Turkey, which left 250 people martyred and nearly 2,200 injured.