Ukraine deports suspected Gulen supporters to Turkey
Turkey’s Interior Ministry announced the deportation Wednesday of two suspects from Ukraine over alleged ties to a terror group in what human rights advocates condemn as illegal renditions without due process.
ISTANBUL — Ukraine deported two individuals to Ankara over alleged ties to a terror group, Turkey’s Interior Ministry announced in a statement Wednesday. Human rights advocates said the move amounted to illegal rendition without due process, condemning Ankara’s ongoing efforts to round up suspected Turkish dissidents living abroad.
Salih Fidan and Samet Gure were arrested while trying to illegally cross the Ukraine-Poland border, according to the ministry, which alleged the pair were senior members of an organization led by Fethullah Gulen, an exiled Turkish cleric who is accused by Ankara of fomenting a 2016 coup attempt in Turkey.
Both Turkish citizens, Fidan and Gure are suspected to have served as “chief” operators for the Gulen organization in Iraq, according to the ministry. A Turkish court issued arrest warrants for the suspects on charges of membership in an armed terrorist organization and their cases are being processed at the Public Prosecutor's Office in Ankara.
Shortly after the failed 2016 coup, Fidan reportedly fled with his wife to Baghdad, where he worked at a Gulen-linked university. According to pro-government news reports, Gure “actively served” the Gulen organization while working as a physics teacher in Erbil and allegedly had a Bank Asya account in Turkey, all of which Ankara considers evidence of membership in the terror group.
