Turkish authorities arrested a prosecutor on Wednesday on charges of belonging to a shadowy group that allegedly plotted to overthrow the Islamist-rooted government, state news agency Anatolia said.

Turkey's powerful judiciary has traditionally been a bastion of the conservative secular establishment which suspects Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan's AK Party of having an Islamist agenda.
 

Ihan Cihaner had launched an investigation into a religious organisation in the eastern Erzincan province in 2007, Turkish media said, adding that his detention was the first time a prosecutor in Turkey had been arrested.
 

The Union of Judges and Prosecutors described the arrest as a "serious violation of the law."
 

More than 200 people, including military officers, lawyers and politicians, have been arrested since the "Ergenekon" case came to light two and a half years ago.
 

Prosecutors accuse the ultra-nationalist group of planning to sow chaos through bombings and attacks across Turkey to justify the army stepping in and toppling Erdogan's government.
 

Critics of the government say the Ergenekon investigation has also been used to hound political opponents.

Markets unaffected
Markets have mostly ignored the strains as investors have focused on the global economy and on protracted talks between Ankara and the IMF on a stand-by loan deal.
 

Commenting on the arrest of the prosecutor, Tera Brokerage said in a note on Wednesday: "Developments may increase the political tension but we doubt this would have any impact on the markets."
 

Militant secularists embedded in the judiciary, armed forces and civil service, often referred to as the "Deep State", see themselves waging a legitimate struggle against moves by Erdogan to seize control of the state and establish Islamist rule.
 

Erdogan's AK Party denies any such ambition, and points to liberal political and economic reforms it has carried out since it ended the secularists' decades-old grip on power in 2002.
 

Separately, two navy admirals testified as suspects on Tuesday in connection to another plot to undermine the AK Party, Turkish media said.
 

Source: Reuters