News / Turkey

Turkey fires 45 more members of judiciary in post-coup purge

Tuesday, 04 April 2017 12:39 PM [ Last Update: Tuesday, 04 April 2017 1:53 PM ]

Paramilitary police escort defendants as a trial opened in Mugla, Turkey, February 20, 2017, for people accused of attempting to kill President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on the night of the failed coup. (Photo by AP)

Turkey has dismissed 45 more judges and prosecutors as part of a heavy-handed crackdown launched by the government on political dissent following last year’s failed military coup.

Turkey’s state-run Anadolu Agency reported the development on Monday, saying the latest dismissal brings to 4,000 the total number of the members of the judiciary purged so far.

Turkey witnessed a coup attempt on July 15, 2016, when a faction of the Turkish military declared that the government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was no more in charge of the country.

A few hours later, however, the putsch was suppressed. Almost 250 people were killed and nearly 2,200 others wounded in the abortive coup, which was blamed on the movement led by US-based opposition cleric Fethullah Gulen. He has denied the charges.

Since then, Ankara has been engaged in suppressing the media and opposition groups, who were believed to have played a role in the failed putsch.

Reports say Turkish authorities have detained, sacked or dismissed over 113,000 people from the police, military, public service, judiciary and elsewhere in the post-coup crackdown.

Turkish police officers stand guard at Istanbul's headquarters on January 17, 2017. (Photo by AP)

Elsewhere in its report, Anadolu said the High Council of Judges and Prosecutors in Turkey had suspended a judge and an official, who were handling a case of suspected members of the Gulen movement, just a few days after the judge acquitted most of the defendants.

Earlier on Monday, Turkey’s main opposition party, the Republican People's Party (CHP), accused the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) of having prior knowledge of what it said was a “controlled” coup.

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