Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, left, throws flowers onto the grave of a victim of last year's failed coup attempt, in Istanbul, Tuesday, July 11, 2017. Erdogan and Turkey's Prime Minister Binali Yildirim, visited a graveyard in Istanbul where some of the victims were buried, while special prayers were to be recited in honour of the dead at mosques across the country. (AP)
ISTANBUL: Turkey's official news agency says a film director has been detained on suspicion of links to a U.S.-based cleric who Turkey blames for last summer's failed coup.
Anadolu news agency says Ali Avci was detained Thursday at his home. Avci was a producer for "The Chief," a biopic on President Recep Tayyip Erdogan released in March, and is the director of "Awakening," an upcoming movie on the July 15 coup attempt.
The movie's trailer showed a scenario where the coup plotters had succeeded and killed Erdogan's family and colleagues. The trailer ends with a gun pointed at Erdogan's head.
Avci was detained with a fugitive suspected of using an encrypted messaging application allegedly used by cleric Fethullah Gulen's network.
Gulen has denied involvement in the coup attempt.
