Turkey has announced plans to release of thousands of prisoners in a move that analysts believe is aimed at freeing up prison space for the thousands of people arrested for taking part in July's failed military coup.
Turkey's Justice Minister Bekir Bozdağ announced a series of penal reforms on Twitter on Wednesday that he said could see 38,000 prisoners released from the country's overcrowded jails.
Prisoners with two years left on their sentences could be eligible for release, Bozdag said, although prisoners still need to have served at least half their sentences to be eligible.
Detained Turkish soldiers who allegedly took part in a military coup arrive in a bus at the courthouse in Istanbul on July 20, 2016, following the military coup attempt of July 15.
Prisoners convicted of murder, violent crimes and sexual abuse are excluded from the reforms - as will those serving crimes committed after July 1 2016, he said, insisting that the penal reforms were not an "amnesty."
One U.K.-based political expert who asked not to be named due to the sensitivity of the situation following the failed coup told CNBC that the penal reforms certainly "look like it's intended to make room for alleged members of the coup plot."
"The release of prisoners is likely to have been carried out to make space for new detainees, the majority of which were in all likelihood not directly or indirectly involved in the failed putsch," he said.
Since the failed attempt to depose Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in July, more than 60,000 people in the police, judiciary, academia, media and local government have either been arrested for taking part in the overthrow attempt on July 15 in which 270 people died or suspended or dismissed from their posts.
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