The Anonymous collective has pledged support to Marxist hackers RedHack and condemned the Turkish government for its crackdown on cybercrime.

"An attack on Redhack is an attack on free information, a free press, and free expression," says a video posted on YouTube. "The Turkish government is afraid of open internet information."

RedHack is a political online group founded in 1997 that uses "defacement hacking" to "raise awareness of the poor against the elite that tries to strip our rights and freedoms", the group says on its website.

Members of the group stole data from Turkey's police network and the Ankara police directorate in March and forced the police shutdown of all servers. RedHack seized data related to informants, complaints and other correspondence.

"Our action is legitimate and it is retaliation against the imperialism that has recently turned our region into a prison," reads a group statement.

Turkish police arrested seven suspects over the hack but the group said that none of the detainees was a member of RedHack.

"They took young people into custody who shared news about RedHack on their Facebook account after the file had been sent to the special authority prosecution," Turkey news site bianet quoted the hackers as saying.

RedHack retaliated by targeting the Turkish interior ministry's website.

Several documents on the site were downloaded while the site's content was replaced by a photomontage of interior minister Idris Naim Sahin standing next to the V for Vendetta character wearing a Guy Fawkes mask.

A statement on the website called for the release of "innocent members on charges of being a RedHack member".

Anonymous claimed that the Turkish police actions were "the same as its [government] attacks against a free press, free expression and the right to the uncensored information".

"These attacks are illegitimate. Anonymous supports RedHack, who support free information for the Turkish people," says the video.

For further news on Anonymous's recent activities, check out the IBTimes UK Cyber Warfare section.

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