As the pro-government media claimed that the murderer of Russia’s ambassador to Ankara had used a smart phone application known as Bylock in an effort to link the gunman to the Gülen movement, it was confirmed on Thursday that the murderer, police officer Mevlüt Altıntaş, did not have ByLock on his phone.

According to a Doğan news agency report, Altıntaş did not download ByLock although pro-government columnist Abdulkadir Selvi wrote on same day in Hürriyet that the police officer who shot the ambassador had downloaded the application, which is considered a sign of affiliation with the Gülen movement, according to the government.A pro-government daily similarly claimed that Altıntaş was connected to 10 blacklisted Bylock users, according to government reports.

Hamidiye Altıntaş, the mother of police officer Mevlüt Altıntaş, who killed Russian Ambassador to Turkey Andrei Karlov on Monday, denied pro-government media claims that her son attended a prep school linked to the Gülen movement before joining the police force, the T24 news website reported.

“My son did not attend any prep school before his police exam. My son was calm and introverted,” said mother Altıntaş during a police interrogation.Altıntaş also said her son called her on the day of assassination but since she was a guest in another house, told him to call back later.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s claim that US-based Turkish Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen was behind the assassination of Russia’s ambassador to Turkey on Monday is an insult to Russian intelligence, a prominent Russian analyst said.

Speaking during an interview with Aljazeera International on Tuesday, Mark Sleboda – a Russian international relations and security analyst – said the idea that Gülen followers are behind Russian envoy Andrei Karlov’s killing by a Turkish police officer on Monday is an insult to Russian intelligence.

An Ankara-based couple who were earlier dismissed from their positions at Gazi University have been detained along with their three children in Edirne while they were on their way to escape to Greece.Gendarmes stopped a car on the Keşan-Malkara highway after a phone call informed them about the family’s plan, on Thursday. M.U. and his wife E.U., both associate professors, their three children aged between 4 to 7 and a smuggler were detained in the car. Thousands of people have fled Turkey due to a massive witch-hunt launched by the Justice and Development Party (AKP) government against sympathizers of the Gülen movement in the wake of a failed coup attempt on July 15. The government accuses the movement of masterminding the coup despite the lack of any evidence to that effect.