Turkish police detained 67 people in early morning raids in Ankara on November 5, 2019, over accusations that they used ByLock, an encrypted messaging application authorities treated as evidence of links to the Gülen movement.
The Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office had issued detention warrants for 94 people. Police were continuing to search for the remaining suspects.
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s government claims ByLock was used exclusively by members of the Gülen movement, which Ankara blames for a failed coup on July 15, 2016.
The movement denies involvement in the coup attempt.
Turkish courts have used alleged ByLock records as evidence in thousands of prosecutions. Lawyers and human rights advocates have challenged the reliability of the data and argued that alleged use of a messaging application alone does not prove membership in an armed organization or participation in criminal activity.
The operation was part of a crackdown launched after the coup attempt that led to the arrest of tens of thousands of people and the dismissal of more than 130,000 public employees over alleged Gülen links.
