Turkey launched a mass new purge of the police and judiciary on Wednesday as parliament debates controversial reforms that have heightened the crisis engulfing Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Around 470 police were sacked or reassigned in the capital Ankara alone, NTV television reported, in the latest fallout from a corruption scandal targeting several top politicians and business leaders including Erdogan allies.
On Tuesday, the Supreme Board of Judges and Prosecutors (HSYK) removed 96 judges and prosecutors from their posts.
The shakeups came as Erdogan, on a visit to Brussels to try to advance Turkey's EU membership bid, defended government moves to tighten its control of the judiciary.
Those removed in the latest purge include five chief prosecutors and other senior figures who oversaw the trials against hundreds of top military officers convicted of plotting against the Justice and Development Party (AKP) government.
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