Alparslan Kuytul and his wife Semra Kuytul are among 35 people remanded in custody on Sunday on charges of running a criminal organization, fraud, and money laundering. They were among 56 people detained on Aug. 19 in the latest crackdown on so-called religious movements accused of making illicit gains. Earlier this month, the leader of another group, known as the “Süleymancılar,” was also arrested.
Kuytul is based in the southern province of Adana and is the chair of the now-defunct Furkan Education and Service Foundation. He is known for his social media videos where he speaks on a broad range of issues and has cultivated a following, particularly in Adana, since the 1990s. He was arrested and detained in the past for kidnapping a dissident of his movement, as well as on charges of running a criminal organization in 2022 and 2018 respectively, before being released in 2020.
Justice Minister Akın Gürlek announced on Aug. 19 that simultaneous operations had been carried out across 49 addresses in six provinces against the group known to the public as the "Kuytulcular." He stated that legal action had been initiated against 32 suspects on charges of "establishing and managing a criminal organization," "membership in an organization," "laundering assets derived from crime," "aggravated fraud," "forgery of official documents," and "violations of the Tax Procedure Law."
Minister Gürlek noted that access-blocking decisions had been issued for 349 social media accounts identified as carrying out activities in favor of the organization, and that trustee management had been appointed to five companies linked to the group.
Following the capture of the initial 32 suspects in the Aug. 19 operation, 24 additional suspects were detained.
Authorities announced that rooms protected by ciphered doors were located in the group's so-called administrative building on Abidinpaşa Street in the central Seyhan district of Adana, where some computer towers had been removed and hard drives from others had been detached. Upon examining security camera footage around the building, teams identified the suspects who had taken the evidence, the retrieved computer towers and hard drives were subsequently taken in for forensic examination.
