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Report: Turkey Sacks 107 Judges, Prosecutors Over Links to Failed Coup


FILE - Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan gestures as he delivers a speech at a conference in Istanbul, April 29, 2017.
FILE - Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan gestures as he delivers a speech at a conference in Istanbul, April 29, 2017.

Turkey dismissed 107 judges and prosecutors over alleged links to a failed coup in July last year, Turkish television reported Friday, in the third major purge since President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was granted sweeping new powers.

Turkey has now fired about 145,000 civil servants, security personnel and academics, local media reported. The number of ousted judges and prosecutors has reached 4,238.

Ankara has blamed the network of the U.S.-based cleric Fethullah Gulen for a coup attempt last July in which he has denied all involvement.

Detention warrants were issued for the dismissed judges and prosecutors, Turkish TV said. More than 40,000 were arrested in the aftermath of the failed putsch, in which 240 people were killed, mostly civilians.

Rights groups and some Western allies say a referendum in April brought Turkey, a NATO member and European Union candidate, closer to one-man rule.

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    Reuters

    Reuters is a news agency founded in 1851 and owned by the Thomson Reuters Corporation based in Toronto, Canada. One of the world's largest wire services, it provides financial news as well as international coverage in over 16 languages to more than 1000 newspapers and 750 broadcasters around the globe.

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