11 April 2018•Update: 11 April 2018
IZMIR, Turkey
A court in western Izmir province sentenced a convict to seven years and six months in jail as part of case linked to the Fetullah Terrorist Organization (FETO) on Wednesday, according to a judicial source.
The prosecutor of the trial said convict Abdullah Unal had signed into the ByLock mobile app 18,700 times.
The ByLock messaging app is an encrypted smartphone app used by FETO members before and during the defeated coup of July 2016 in Turkey.
The source, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to restrictions on talking to the media, added that Unal also sent 3,655 mails and 900 messages through this app -- some of which were said to have come from FETO's U.S.-based leader Fetullah Gulen himself.
FETO and Gulen orchestrated the 2016 defeated coup in Turkey, which left 250 people martyred and nearly 2,200 injured.
Ankara also accuses FETO of being behind a long-running campaign to overthrow the state through the infiltration of Turkish institutions, particularly the military, police, and judiciary.
Unal was convicted of “being a member of an armed terrorist organization”.
During the trial, Unal said he had been in prison for a year and was a tradesmen before he was convicted.
He had requested the court to release him, however, the court ordered that Unal's jail term would be extended to seven years and six months from the previous sentence of five years.
Separately, a court in southeastern province of Gaziantep sentenced former Judge Selami Durak to eight years, one month and 15 days in prison term as part of a case linked to FETO.
Prosecutor of the trial Cem Saklica said Durak used the ByLock and Kakao Talk, which is another smartphone messaging app, and invited other judges and prosecutors to FETO meetings.
Durak said he had no links with FETO and rejected claims about using ByLock.
The court, however, convicted and sentenced him on the charge of “being member of an armed terrorist organization”.
Reporting by Omer Sut and Adsiz Gunebakan:Writing by Can Erozden
