ISTANBUL: Turkish authorities have begun freeing some suspects arrested for involvement in a coup attempt after they found that thousands had been unwittingly re-directed to a messaging app used by the plotters, media outlets reported on Friday.

Turkey has identified 215,000 users of the ByLock messaging app and started investigating more than 23,000 of them.

Ankara said many of those were re-directed to ByLock unwittingly via a different app developed by the plotters of the failed coup. An arrest warrant was issued for the developer of that app.

An accountant from the opposition newspaper Cumhuriyet, who was in jail for 267 days, was also among those released. The case against 17 other employees of the newspaper continues.

Ankara said it would issue a decree calling for those released from prison to be returned to their jobs, state broadcaster TRT Haber said.

Accountant Emre Iper has been held for 267 days as one of the suspects in a case that has raised concerns over press freedom under President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Turkey also released another German citizen from jail, Berlin said on Friday, stressing however that seven more were still being held for “political reasons.”

Without identifying the person, the German foreign ministry said it could “confirm the unconditional release of a German citizen who had been jailed for political reasons in Turkey.”

Ankara prosecutor’s office said it would review the cases of 11,480 suspects who were re-directed to ByLock without their consent.

Private broadcaster NTV said 161 suspects in Istanbul, 27 in the capital Ankara, and 14 in southeastern province of Diyarbakir were freed.

Cases against 36 others in northwestern Yalova province were being re-evaluated, it said.

The list of those to be released included a former Justice and Development Party (AKP) member of parliament and the coach of a football team.

Agencies