Ankara prosecutor rules out charges against Fethullah Gülen

Hurriyet Daily News

Ankara’s chief prosecutor with special authority has dropped an investigation into allegations leveled against religious leader Fethullah Gülen by arrested ex-police chief Hanefi Avcı, reports said Friday.

There is no reason to prosecute Gülen and another individual known only by the initials O.H.Ö., Ankara’s special public prosecutor concluded Friday following an investigation.

The probe was launched based on claims made by Avcı, the former police chief of Eskişehir, who has been in the public spotlight since publishing a book in August 2010 titled “Haliç’te Yaşayan Simonlar: Dün Devlet Bugün Cemaat” (“Devotee” Residents of Haliç: Yesterday State, Today Religious Community), which alleges that the religious Gülen community has covertly taken control of the state, and the security department in particular.

Based on the book’s claims, the prosecutor launched the investigation into Gülen and O.H.Ö. on possible charges of “starting and being a member of a criminal organization with the goal of changing the constitutional order.”

The decision by the prosecution concluded the book was based on “abstract claims and was not based on evidence.”

Avcı said in his book that investigations launched against certain law enforcement officials were dictated by the Gülen community.

The ex-police chief is currently in jail as a suspect for alleged links to an outlawed leftist group, the Revolutionary Headquarters.

The Police Department also said they had no records of an organization called the Fethullah Gülen community as part of the anti-terror law.

According to the prosecution decision, O.H.Ö. denied the claims written about him in the book, while searches of his house, office and computer revealed no evidence of any criminal wrongdoing.

Gülen, a famous Turkish religious leader, has lived in self-imposed exile in Pennsylvania in the United States since 1998.

Published on Hurriyet Daily News, 27 May 2011, Friday