Extradition request for Gülen 'legally baseless'

The lawyer of Turkish Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen made a statement on Monday about the “arrest warrant” issued by a Turkish court for Gülen, saying that extradition request has no legal bases.

Responding to the “arrest warrant issue," Gülen’s lawyer Nurullah Albayrak said the extradition request would serve to verify Turkey’s illegal demands in an international arena.

“Despite of Gülen’s residential address known clearly by authorities and known that can give testimony in his house, Turkish authorities issued an “arrest warrant." It is clearly proves that the case has no legal base, and authorities demand to use it for their political purposes," Albayrak added.

“Practice is politically motivated”

Underlining that previously Gülen has given testimony over claims, to US judicial authorities which ended in acquittal, Albayrak said “The then-US prosecutor, who took Gülen’s testimony, was shocked after seeing these claims. It is clear that the government takes such practices to use them as a tool in internal policy. In despite of knowing that US will not return him back to Turkey, they issued a warrant with baseless claims.”

Expressing that it was impossible for Interpol to issue a “red notice” to take his testimony, he added “Until today, there were no examples where the US arrested a person and delivered them back to Turkey for being a member of a terrorist organization.”

On Friday, the 1st İstanbul Penal Court of Peace decided to issue an “arrest warrant” and penned a letter to the Ministry of Justice to issue a “red notice” for Gülen on suspicion of defaming the allegedly al-Qaeda-linked terror group, known as “Tahşiyeciler.”

Published on BGNNews, 22 December 2014, Monday