Turkey has issued a decree that will pave the way for the conditional release of some 38,000 prisoners in an apparent move to reduce its prison population to make space for coup plotters. “The crimes committed after Jul 1, 2016 are outside its scope”, Bozdag said on Twitter.
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Convicts with up to two years left of their sentences are eligible for release on probation. The decree will not apply to inmates in jail on murder, terrorism, domestic abuse or sexual assault charges.
Turkey will grant early release to some 38,000 prisoners who committed crimes before July 1, Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag said on August 17, 2016, amid reports of prison overcrowding after the failed coup. Gulen has been living in self-imposed exile in the USA state of Pennsylvania since 1999.
Questions from the “fraudulent” KPSS in 2010, which was taken by 808,000 Turkish citizens seeking to become civil servants, was initially leaked to Gülen, the Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office said.
Ankara accuses Fetullah Gulen of masterminding the failed coup and has sent the US two official requests for his extradition to face trial.
“It is something that the Turkish government is demanding in a very determined fashion”, Mr. Kemal Kirişci, TÜSİAD senior fellow and director of the Center of the United States and Europe’s Turkey Project at the Brookings Institute told The Media Line.
Rizanur Meral, the president of the Turkish Confederation of Businessmen and Industrialists (Tuskon), was among the suspects wanted by authorities, the private Dogan news agency reported.
A total of 40,029 people have been detained in investigations following the coup, and 20,355 of them formally arrested, Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said in a speech late on Wednesday.
President Tayyip Erdogan has vowed to choke off businesses linked to the USA -based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen, whom he blames for the coup attempt, describing his schools, firms and charities as “nests of terrorism”. The release is not amnesty, Bozdağ tweeted.
Some 75,000 people have already been dismissed from their jobs over alleged links to Gulen.
“If the U.S. does not send him (Gulen) to Turkey, relations will not be the same as they were before Jul 15”, Bozdag said, warning Washington not to “lose” the Turkish people.
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The government crackdown has raised concerns among European nations and human rights organisations, who have urged the Turkish government to show restraint.
