25 Gülenist suspects detained in KPSS cheating scandal

Turkish police have detained 25 people in connection with alleged fraud in a 2010 nationwide civil-service recruitment exam.

The suspects, including teachers and school administrators, were detained in a simultaneous operation conducted in 19 provinces, including Istanbul and the capital Ankara, upon the order of Ankara prosecutor Yücel Erkman, police said.

Detention warrants were issued for 44 suspects in 19 Turkish provinces under the scope of the Public Personnel Selection Exam (KPSS) cheating scandal which took place in 2010.

The public prosecutor's office in Ankara ordered the detention of 78 suspects in April as part of a second operation into fraud allegations connected with the exam.

The first wave of arrests came in late March in 14 provinces, including Ankara, Istanbul and İzmir, which resulted in the detention of 62 suspects, 30 of whom were later released.

Police allegedly found evidence for the involvement of members of the Gülen Movement in the fraud.

The suspects of the first operation also faced charges of being members of a criminal organization, forgery, illegal and harmful activity in public institutions, destroying criminal evidence and abuse of power.

Police units launched the second wave of the KPSS cheating investigation in 28 provinces and took 35 of 78 suspects into custody on Monday morning. Nine other suspects were taken into custody a day later and the whereabouts of 33 others is reportedly unknown.

After a Gülen Movement-linked Twitter account named @FuatAvni released details of the pre-dawn raids on Sunday night, many of the suspects reportedly left their homes with some leaving the country in order to escape arrest. Similar tipoffs were announced by anonymous Gülen Movement-affiliated Twitter accounts, hinting at the movement's deep infiltration in state institutions, mainly the judiciary, police department and the media.

The operation was launched jointly by the Ankara Police Department's Anti-Smuggling and Organized Crime Bureau and Financial Crime Bureau, and was put into action to investigate the purported Gülen Movement-linked suspects' alleged involvement in mass cheating on the 2010 KPSS, for which Fethullah Gülen is the prime suspect. In the first wave of the operation, 32 out of 62 Gülen Movement-linked suspects were arrested on March 27.

Members of the Gülen Movement have allegedly infiltrated state institutions with a supposed aim of bringing down the elected government and taking over the state. The network is run by Fethullah Gülen who lives in self-imposed exile in Pennsylvania.