Turkey Claims to Have ‘Captured’ Cleric’s Relative in Kenya

ISTANBUL — Turkey’s intelligence service claims it has “captured” a Turkish citizen associated to a cleric they are saying orchestrated a failed coup, and brought him from his dwelling in Kenya to Turkey, the state-run Anadolu information company reported Monday.

The person, Selahaddin Gulen, is reported to be the nephew of Fethullah Gulen, an Islamic preacher primarily based in america who’s accused of organizing a coup towards President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in 2016.

Mr. Erdogan confronted down the coup try and cracked down onerous within the aftermath, imposing a state of emergency for 2 years, detaining 100,000 folks and purging 150,000 public staff from their jobs.

Greater than 8,000 army personnel have been prosecuted for his or her half within the revolt.

Overseas, the crackdown has concerned the compelled renditions of 80 or extra Gulen supporters and the closing of dozens of faculties run by his motion. Turkey has requested the extradition of Fethullah Gulen from america, however Washington has finished little to fulfill that demand. American officers have stated the proof offered by Ankara is inadequate to face up in court docket.

The failure to extradite Mr. Gulen is one in every of a number of complaints expressed by Mr. Erdogan in his worsening relationship with america.

Academics and directors of a number of the motion’s colleges have been extradited or deported with the cooperation of some international locations, together with Kosovo, Bulgaria and Malaysia.

The Turkish authorities accused six Turkish residents who have been deported from Kosovo in March 2018 of getting connections to Mr. Gulen, whose Islamic motion has garnered assist within the Balkans, amongst different locations.

Kosovo’s prime minister on the time, Ramush Haradinaj, stated that he had not approved the deportations, and he fired his interior minister and secret service chief on the grounds that they’d identified concerning the operation and failed to tell him prematurely.

Quickly after, Bekir Bozdag, Turkey’s deputy prime minister, boasted that Turkish secret brokers in 18 international locations had seized 80 Turks suspected of getting hyperlinks to the Gulen motion. However later that 12 months Turkey was additionally prevented from transporting a Turkish educator from Mongolia.

Turkish officers pressured international locations together with Kenya to shut Gulen-backed personal colleges, that are in main cities together with Nairobi and Mombasa. Whereas the Kenyan authorities didn’t accomplish that, the strain was indicative of Mr. Erdogan’s affect and the way far he would go to interrupt up the Gulen motion.

Relations between Kenya and Turkey have strengthened previously decade, with the 2 international locations signing agreements in safety and technical cooperation. In 2020, commerce quantity between the 2 international locations grew to $251 million, according to the Turkish foreign ministry.

Selahaddin Gulen was residing in Kenya and was combating a authorized battle to keep away from deportation by the Kenyan authorities.

A Turkish citizen and a everlasting resident of america, he arrived in Kenya on a vacationer visa on Oct. 17, in response to a court docket affidavit seen by The New York Occasions. After he was allowed into the nation, immigration officers arrested him primarily based on a “crimson discover” alert issued by Interpol for “an alleged youngster molestation case,” the affidavit stated. Mr. Gulen, in response to the affidavit, stated he was acquitted of the costs in 2008.

Mr. Gulen instructed the Kenyan court docket that Turkish authorities have been “eager on subjecting me to political persecution as they’ve finished to my sister, my brother and 62 different members of my prolonged household.”

In his affidavit, he referred to as Interpol’s crimson notices “the brand new machine or instrument that the Turkish authorities now have resorted to utilizing of their efforts to grab and extradite to Turkey all individuals associated to Fethullah Gulen (who reside outdoors Turkey) for functions of being imprisoned.”

Interpol has come beneath widespread criticism for permitting autocrats and strongmen to abuse its alert system to serve their political ends.

Two days after Mr. Gulen arrived in Kenya, on Oct. 19, he was arraigned in court docket and launched on bail pending the extradition proceedings towards him. In early Could, days earlier than his case got here up for listening to, he disappeared whereas on his approach to the headquarters of the Directorate of Prison Investigations, his lawyer, Jotham Okome Arwa, stated.

“It was a requirement of his bail that he ought to seem each Monday to substantiate that he was nonetheless inside jurisdiction,” Mr. Arwa stated in an interview.

The court docket has directed Kenyan officers to elucidate the whereabouts of Mr. Gulen, which they haven’t finished, Mr. Arwa stated. It was unclear what position Kenya performed, if any, within the seize of Mr. Gulen. Kenya’s ministry of inside didn’t reply to questions on Mr. Gulen’s case.

It was not the primary time that Turkish safety businesses have detained somebody in Kenya. In 1999, Turkish intelligence, with the assistance of American and Kenyan safety officers, captured the Kurdish insurgent chief Abdullah Ocalan and took him again to Turkey.

In a video shared online, Mr. Gulen’s spouse, Seriyye Gulen, stated she had been residing in Kenya since final November and that she final noticed her husband on Could 3. She stated she believed he was “kidnapped and brought to Turkey on Could 5.”

Citing safety sources, the Anadolu information company stated that Turkey’s Nationwide Intelligence Group, MIT, captured Mr. Gulen overseas and introduced him to Turkey. The report stated Mr. Gulen was associated to folks within the FETO motion. FETO is an acronym for the Gulen motion utilized by the Turkish authorities.

The information company offered no additional particulars, though Mr. Erdogan had stated on Could 19 that Turkey had captured a senior member of the Gulen motion.

“Quickly we are going to announce an essential title from the FETO staff too,” Mr. Erdogan stated, chatting with children in Turkey’s Nationwide Youth and Sports activities Day. “He’s in our palms proper now.’’

Carlotta Gall reported from Istanbul and Abdi Latif Dahir from Nairobi, Kenya.



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