According to Bozdag, the decree is only applicable to people whose crimes were committed before July 1, two weeks before the coup attempt that produced over 300 deaths.
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Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag said on his Twitter account the measure would lead to the release of some 38,000 people.
The government has blamed the coup attempt, which unfolded the night of July 15 as a rebel faction of the military sought to topple the government, on Fethullah Gulen, an Islamic cleric who lives in self-exile in rural Pennsylvania and whose followers have long filled positions in state institutions, including the military.
The measure would not apply to people who have committed crimes after July 1 and thus excludes any one later convicted of coup involvement.
The decree allows the release of inmates who have two years or less to serve of their prison terms and makes convicts who have served half of their prison term eligible for parole.
One of the freed prisoners Turgay Aydin, was quoted as thanking Erdogan and saying: “I am very happy because I am released from prison”.
Bozdag, however, did not outline his reasoning for the move.
BAE Systems’ (LON:BA) deal to develop Turkey’s first home-built fighter jet has been delayed following the attempted coup against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Bloomberg has reported.
The group has been accused of infiltrating the Turkish judiciary, military and police over the years, forming what is commonly known as the parallel state to overthrow Turkey’s elected government.
Turkey’s 180,000-person prisons were already filled to capacity before the crackdown on Gulen’s movement, with some rights groups claiming that inmates were forced to take turns to sleep on beds.
Turkey’s President Tayyip Erdogan says tens of thousands of people have been detained since the failed coup.
Gulen vehemently rejects the charges but Turkey has embarked on a relentless drive to expel what Erdogan calls his “virus” from all public institutions. Under another move, the TIB telecoms authority will be closed. Some 75,000 people have already been dismissed from their jobs over alleged links to Gulen.
The West worries Erdogan is using the coup to stifle dissent.
With concern also surging over the authorities’ attitude on press freedom, security forces sealed and raided the premises of the pro-Kurdish daily Ozgur Gundem following a court order to shut it down.
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Turkey’s Foreign Ministry said Germany was guilty of double standards and that it should be more supportive of Turkey in its fight against the militant Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), listed as a terrorist group by the European Union and the United States.
