The Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office issued detention warrants for 20 current and former bank employees as part of post-coup investigations based on alleged use of ByLock, an encrypted messaging app Turkish authorities treat as evidence of links to the Gülen movement.
Police have detained 11 people so far.
The individuals targeted are current or former employees of Bank Asya, İller Bankası, the Central Bank and the Development Bank of Turkey.
They had previously been suspended or dismissed from their jobs by emergency decree following Turkey’s July 15, 2016 coup attempt.
The warrants were based on allegations that the individuals used ByLock.
ByLock has become one of the most frequently cited grounds in post-coup investigations, with prosecutors treating alleged use of the app as evidence of movement affiliation.
Defense lawyers and rights advocates dispute the evidentiary value of alleged ByLock use, arguing that prosecutors often rely on technical records without showing criminal conduct, message content or individual involvement in the coup attempt.
Bank Asya, a participation bank associated by Turkish authorities with the Gülen movement, was seized by the state before the coup attempt and later shut down by government decree.
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 the coup attempt. The movement denies involvement in the coup attempt or any terrorist activity.
The operation shows that investigations launched after the coup attempt are continuing in public institutions and the banking sector, targeting people already removed or suspended from their jobs under emergency rule measures.
