The Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office has issued detention warrants for 32 former Health Ministry employees over alleged use of ByLock, an encrypted messaging app Turkish authorities treat as evidence of links to the Gülen movement.
The warrants were issued by the prosecutor’s terrorism and organized crime investigation bureau.
Police carried out morning raids in six provinces on the prosecutor’s orders.
Eighteen people have been detained so far.
The detainees are expected to be taken to the Ankara Police Department for questioning.
Police are continuing efforts to detain the remaining 14 people named in the warrants.
The Gülen movement is a transnational civic initiative inspired by Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen.
Ankara designates the movement as a terrorist organization and blames it for Turkey’s July 15, 2016 coup attempt. The movement denies involvement in the coup attempt or any terrorist activity.
ByLock remains one of the most frequently cited grounds in post-coup investigations, with prosecutors relying on alleged app-use records to support accusations of movement affiliation.
Defense lawyers and rights advocates dispute the use of ByLock allegations as criminal evidence, saying investigations often fail to show message content, criminal conduct or any direct involvement in the coup attempt.
