Gültekin Avcı, a former prosecutor and fierce advocate of the Gülenist Terror Group (FETÖ), was captured in the western city of İzmir after a court issued an arrest warrant for Avcı on charges of being a member of a terrorist organization.

Avcı was a staple on FETÖ-run TV channels before they were shut down in terror inquiries and was arrested last year in relation to an investigation into a FETÖ plot to imprison the group's critics. He was later released pending trial. As part of a renewed investigation into figures linked to the group, a court has recently issued an arrest warrant for Avcı, who was found in his hideout in İzmir.

He was earlier accused of defaming critics of Fethullah Gülen, the U.S.-based leader of the terror group, by penning false stories about Selam-Tevhid, an alleged terror organization that later turned out to be a group concocted by Gülenist infiltrators within the police and judiciary. Several Gülenist police chiefs already face trial in the Selam-Tevhid case for the illegal wiretapping of hundreds of people, from journalists to politicians, under the pretext of surveillance of Selam-Tevhid members.