Turkey gives Fethullah Gulen's foster son 30-year jail term
A court in Turkey’s southeastern province of Sanliurfa has handed down a 30-year jail term to the foster son of the US-based opposition cleric Fethullah Gulen, whom the Ankara government accuses of having masterminded the July 2016 coup attempt against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
On Thursday, the Sixth Heavy Criminal Court in the province passed the verdict against Ferhat Kucuk, who allegedly led the activities of the Gulen’s movement, branded by the Ankara government as the Fetullah Terrorist Organization (FETO), within Turkish Armed Forces in Sanliurfa.
Kucuk, better known by the alias Vedat, was accused of “managing an armed terror organization, fraud in the public domain and forgery of official documents.”
He denied his links to the Gulen movement during the hearing, and refuted accusations leveled at him.
During the 2016 botched putsch, a faction of the Turkish military declared that it had seized control of the country and the government of Erdogan was no more in charge. The attempt was, however, suppressed a few hours later.
Ankara has since accused Gulen of having orchestrated the coup. The opposition figure is also accused of being behind a long-running campaign to topple the government via infiltrating the country’s institutions, particularly the army, police and the judiciary.
Gulen has denounced the “despicable putsch” and reiterated that he had no role in it.
“Accusations against me related to the coup attempt are baseless and politically-motivated slanders,” he said in a statement.
The 77-year-old cleric has also called on Ankara to end its “witch hunt” of his followers, a move he says is aimed at “weeding out anyone it deems disloyal to President Erdogan and his regime.”
Turkish officials have frequently called on their US counterparts to extradite Gulen, but their demands have not been taken heed of.
Turkey has been engaged in suppressing the media and opposition groups suspected to have played a role in the failed coup.
Tens of thousands of people have been arrested in Turkey on suspicion of having links to Gulen and the failed coup. More than 110,000 others, including military staff, civil servants and journalists, have been sacked or suspended from work over the same accusations.
The international community and rights groups have been highly critical of the Turkish president over the massive dismissals and the crackdown.
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