They've been questioned about the hacker group, cyberattacks and Gezi protests

Nov 26, 2013 07:47 GMT  ·  By

Last week, 14 individuals were arrested by Turkish authorities on suspicion of being involved with the RedHack hacktivist collective. On Monday, after being presented before an Ankara court, all of them were released.

The alleged hackers were arrested last Friday by the Ankara Police Department's Cyber Crime Units in various locations, including Ankara, Denizli, Diyarbakır, Ordu, Kahramanmaraş, Bursa and Mersin.

According to Hurriyet Daily News, investigators asked them around 27 questions regarding the Gezi protests, RedHack and their role with the group, and the cyberattacks launched against government organizations.

One of the suspects is the actor Barış Atay. He was highly vocal on Twitter during the Gezi protests. However, the actor claims that he was only active on social media channels from his mobile phone, because he doesn’t have too much time for the Internet.

A member of Anonymous who’s said to be one of the founding members of RedHack has also been detained.

Initially, only 9 of the arrested people were released, but at the end of the day, all of them were set free.

RedHack has always denied that any of the suspects are members of the group. The hackers claim that the government is trying these “new tactics” because it has failed to silence them.

During the trial in Ankara, the hackers breached the website of the AKP political party and posted an apology on behalf of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The website was quickly restored.

“Redhack is the conscience and the voice of the oppressed people. We take our strength from believing in justice and freedom. No one can silence us because our ideas have given hope to the oppressed people in Turkey and they have embraced it. You may stop us but not the ideas,” the hackers stated just as the suspects were being released.

“If we are arrested, we strongly believe our places will be filled in by skillful and honorable people who wouldn't yield to fascism.”