Eleven officers arrested in 'parallel state' probe

The judge of the 3rd Criminal Court of Peace announced the ruling at 10:50 p.m. on Tuesday, July 29, into Turkey's parallel state investigation over the espionage claims.

The judge ordered the arrest of 11 police officers out of 49 who were detained. Among the imprisoned was the ex-chief of the Istanbul Headquarters' counter-terrorism unit, Yurt Atayün, who planned to detain Turkey's master spy, Hakan Fidan.

Atayün had planned to detain Hakan Fidan, at that time the Undersecretary of the National Intelligence, or MIT, on February 7, 2013, along with other intelligence officials. Atayün was detained in the first detention wave carried out against the police officers allegedly linked to the parallel structure.

While the court released 30 officers, it gave eight suspects a conditional release as part of the Istanbul-based investigation into alleged spying and illegal wiretapping. The judge ruled to impose an international travel ban on eight officers, including Ömer Köse, the former head of the anti-terror unit at Istanbul police headquarter, and Gaffur Ataç, a police chief.

The court ruling came after two anti-graft operations were launched in December 2013 and led to the arrest of high-profile figures, including the sons of three ministers as well as several entrepreneurs. All those, detained in Istanbul over the December probes were later released pending trial.

Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan has denounced the December probes as a "dirty plot", orchestrated by supporters of the "parallel structure", who have key positions in state institutions including the police and judiciary branches.