In Turkey, indictments continue after the anti-government protests that rocked the country for three weeks, and custody has been ordered for 22 more suspects.
A court in the Turkish capital charged 22 people and ordered them to be detained for participating in the demonstrations, the Association of Contemporary Lawyers (ĆD) confirmed, adding that three more people were detained but released.
The indictment refers to their role in organizing demonstrations and their alleged participation in violent acts on behalf of a secret organization, CNN-Turk Turkish television reported on its website.
The arrests followed a police operation on Tuesday in far-left circles in Istanbul and Ankara.
Turkish Interior Minister Muammar Guler said that the operation had been prepared long before and that the suspects were also involved in the demonstrations.
"The operation, which has been prepared for a year, is directed against the MLKP (Communist Marxist-Leninist Party) terrorist organization, which also participated in the demonstrations in Gezi Park in Istanbul, where the protests in the country began," Guler said.
Photo: Reuters
In Istanbul, 18 members of the Socialist Party of the Oppressed (ESP) were arrested yesterday in the same operation and charged and detained for "belonging to a terrorist organization" and destroying public property.
On Tuesday morning, the police arrested dozens of members of the ESP, a small party of the extreme left very active in demonstrations, in their homes, searched the premises of the daily Atilima and the news agency Etkin, close to that political party.
As of today, at least 46 people have been detained since Sunday, when the police intervened to clear Gezi Park, the last stronghold of protesters who have been demanding the resignation of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan since May 31.
At least four people have been killed and more than 7.800 injured in the demonstrations, the largest against the Islamic conservative government since it came to power in 2002.
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