FETÖ members involved in police exam fraud caught

Prosecutors in Ankara issued arrest warrants for 14 suspects for helping fellow members of the Gülenist Terror Group (FETÖ) cheat on a police exam.

Three suspects were detained in nationwide operations while authorities announced eight suspects were already imprisoned in separate cases related to FETÖ and operations were underway to capture three other suspects.

Among the wanted suspects are police officers and teachers. They are implicated in a case in which several are accused of supplying questions and answers for a 2011 exam that would promote a police officer to the rank of inspector.

FETÖ, blamed for the failed July 15, 2016 coup attempt carried out by its members in the military, is known for its mass infiltration of the judiciary, law enforcement, military and bureaucracy. To achieve this, it sometimes helped its followers cheat on exams by obtaining questions and answers from its members already in institutions tasked with organizing the exams.

A 2010 exam for the recruitment of civil servants was canceled after it was found that FETÖ had supplied the questions to hundreds of its followers.

Last year, security forces detained 10 suspects for involvement in fraud in the 2009 exams for accession to the prestigious Police Academy.

The terrorist group faced more scrutiny after the coup attempt, which was its first attempt at using its adherents in the military to seize power, just three years after it had tried its hand at a coup through its infiltrators in the judiciary and law enforcement.

More than 100,000 people have been arrested or detained since the failed coup attempt with a similar number having been dismissed from their public sector jobs for links to the terrorist group.