Turkey seeks arrest of football hero in coup probe

AFP, ISTANBUL: Turkey issued an arrest warrant for its former star footballer Hakan Sukur over last month’s failed coup as Ankara said Friday it had detected the first progress in persuading the United States to extradite the alleged mastermind of the putsch.With the shockwaves from the July 15 coup aimed at unseating President Recep Tayyip Erdogan shaking Turkey four weeks later, Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said 32 diplomats recalled to Ankara were still missing. Turkey has blamed the coup on the US-based Islamic preacher Fethullah Gulen, whom Ankara accuses of running an armed “terror group.”
Cavusoglu said he had seen the first positive signs Washington could extradite him. Prosecutors in Sakarya province east of Istanbul have charged Sukur with “membership of an armed terror group”, the state-run Anadolu agency said, referring to what Ankara calls the Fethullah Terror Organisation (FETO).
Gulen denies such a group exists and accusations that he masterminded the coup.
A warrant on identical charges has also been issued for his father, Selmet Sukur, the agency said, while a ruling was also issued to seize their assets in Turkey. Hakan Sukur and his family had left Turkey last year but private NTV television said his father was detained Friday in Adapazari, the main town in Sakarya province.

 

Turkey seeks arrest of football hero in coup probe

AFP, ISTANBUL: Turkey issued an arrest warrant for its former star footballer Hakan Sukur over last months failed coup as Ankara said Friday it had detected the first progress in persuading the United States to extradite the alleged mastermind of the putsch.With the shockwaves from the July 15 coup aimed at unseating President Recep Tayyip Erdogan shaking Turkey four weeks later, Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said 32 diplomats recalled to Ankara were still missing. Turkey has blamed the coup on the US-based Islamic preacher Fethullah Gulen, whom Ankara accuses of running an armed terror group. Cavusoglu said he had seen the first positive signs Washington could extradite him. Prosecutors in Sakarya province east of Istanbul have charged Sukur with membership of an armed terror group, the state-run Anadolu agency said, referring to what Ankara calls the Fethullah Terror Organisation (FETO). Gulen denies such a group exists and accusations that he masterminded the coup. A warrant on identical charges has also been issued for his father, Selmet Sukur, the agency said, while a ruling was also issued to seize their assets in Turkey. Hakan Sukur and his family had left Turkey last year but private NTV television said his father was detained Friday in Adapazari, the main town in Sakarya province.