UPDATE - Turkish editor arrested over dead prosecutor 'insult'

UPDATES WITH NEW HEADLINE, ADDED DETAIL ON ALLEGATION AGAINST GUVEN

By Halil Demir and Ilker Girit

ISTANBUL (AA) - The web editor of the Cumhuriyet newspaper was arrested Friday, a police official said, following a public outcry over a story about the death of a public prosecutor.

Oguz Guven, the editor-in-chief of cumhuriyet.com.tr, was taken to Istanbul police headquarters, the official said on condition of anonymity due to restrictions on talking to the media.

The official said an arrest warrant was issued for Guven after the online edition published an article about the death of Mustafa Alper, the chief prosecutor of Denizli province in southwest Turkey, who was killed alongside his driver in a traffic accident on Wednesday.

The truck driver was arrested.

Referring to Alper’s role in prosecuting alleged members of the Fetullah Terrorist Organization (FETO), the story was headlined: “A truck rammed chief prosecutor Mustafa Alper, who filed the first FETO indictment.”

The headline -- which was changed within an hour -- was widely interpreted on social media as implying a direct link between the FETO investigation and Alper’s death.

FETO and its U.S.-based leader Fetullah Gulen are accused of orchestrating the last July’s attempted coup, as well as previous attempts to overthrow the government through infiltrating state institutions.

The Chief Public Prosecutor's Office in Ankara also opened an investigation against fugitive FETO suspects Emre Uslu and Tuncay Opcin, who both made insulting remarks about Alper’s death.

Prosecutors in the capital said they had insulted a public officer and insulted the memory of a dead person, both criminal offenses in Turkey.

Twelve Cumhuriyet journalists and executives are currently in prison facing terror charges.