Judiciary officials investigating police officers linked to the Gülen Movement charged them with gathering information regarding President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his family and for working for foreign intelligence services.

A lawsuit was filed against 10 police officers who were detained earlier this year in an operation for unauthorized inquiry into personal information regarding Erdoğan and members of his family through a confidential intelligence database during his tenure as prime minister.

Police officers face charges of membership in a terrorist organization for their alleged connection to the Gülen Movement, which is accused of purportedly trying to overthrowing the government through its infiltrators in the police and judiciary. They are also accused of supplying information gathered to foreign intelligence services.

The indictment said the Gülen Movement and its leader Fethullah Gülen, took over the Turkish National Police's intelligence department in 2012 and did not allow the assignment of non-Gülen Movement-affiliated police officers to the department. Suspects are accused of fueling a defamation campaign against Erdoğan and his family by spreading misinformation based on intelligence they gathered from the database, through social media and media outlets tied to the movement.

The Gülen Movement, considered as a national threat by the government due to its alleged widespread illegal practices through its infiltrators in the judiciary and police as well as state agencies, is accused of wiretapping hundreds through an unauthorized probe under the guise of inquiring into a terrorist organization from 2011 to 2013. The wiretapping, in the name of fabricating evidence for unlawful spying purposes, was revealed by prosecutors last year after a mass purge of Gülenist affiliates in the judiciary and police.