Ankara: A court in Turkey issued an arrest warrant against the US-based cleric Muhammed Fethullah Gulen, whom President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has accused of trying to topple him, media reported.
This was reported by Xinhua Friday, citing the Turkish daily Hurriyet and the ruling comes after 23 people were detained by the Turkish police in a crackdown on media in 13 cities across the country last Sunday, for alleged links with Gulen.
The Istanbul Prosecutor’s Office asked the First Criminal Court of Peace to issue an arrest warrant against Gulen, and the court accepted, according to the report.
The prosecutor accused Gulen of being “(the) leader of an armed criminal organisation.”
Gulen is a Turkish preacher, former imam, writer and Islamic opinion leader, who had founded the Gulen movement.
He teaches an Anatolian (Hanafi) version of Islam, deriving from Sunni Muslim scholar Said Nursi’s teachings. He had stated that he believed in science and multi-party democracy.
The Turkish government has described the movement and its supporters as part of a “parallel state” since late 2013.
Erdogan had said in Istanbul Dec 6 that there would be “no mercy” on any type of treason while referring to the alleged parallel structure.
Gulen has been abroad since 1998 and the prosecution was not able to contact him for the investigation, the semi-official Anadolu Agency reported.
Gulen, once an ally of President Erdogan, has followers in influential positions in the country’s police and judiciary.
Turkish police officers and prosecutors known to be close to Gulen conducted a graft investigation in December 2013, which President Erdogan had described to be part of a “coup attempt” to overthrow the government.