{"id":27895,"date":"2016-08-20T04:16:12","date_gmt":"2016-08-20T04:16:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/us-to-send-team-to-turkey-for-fethullah-gulen\/"},"modified":"2016-08-20T04:15:48","modified_gmt":"2016-08-20T04:15:48","slug":"us-to-send-team-to-turkey-for-fethullah-gulen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/us-to-send-team-to-turkey-for-fethullah-gulen\/","title":{"rendered":"‘US to send team to Turkey’ for Fethullah Gulen probe"},"content":{"rendered":"

{Justice department’s reported move follows pleas for extradition of man accused of orchestrating failed Turkish coup.}<\/p>\n

The US Department of Justice will dispatch a team to Turkey in the coming days to pursue allegations by the Turkish government of criminal activity by Fethullah Gulen, according to a US media report.<\/p>\n

If true, the move, first reported on Friday by Bloomberg News citing a US administration official, would mark the first sign of progress in Turkey’s attempts to have the Pennsylvania-based Turkish-born religious leader extradited.<\/p>\n

The government of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has accused Gulen’s network of being behind a coup attempt last month, a charge he has strenuously denied.<\/p>\n

“Sooner or later, the US will make a choice. Either Turkey or FETO,” Erdogan said last week, referring to Gulen.<\/p>\n

However, the Washington Post newspaper, quoting an official at the US justice department, reported on Friday that the extradition request refers only to alleged activities before the failed coup attempt.<\/p>\n

“It’s actually tied to allegations of certain alleged criminal activities that pre-date the coup,” the official said.<\/p>\n

“At this point, Turkish authorities have not put forward a formal extradition request based on evidence that he was involved in the coup.”<\/p>\n

US officials are “working alongside their Turkish counterparts to make sure we understand” everything contained in the evidence”, according to the justice department official.<\/p>\n

“If there is probable cause for extradition, ultimately a court will determine whether the evidence is sufficient. … We are still a way down the line from even knowing whether that’s possible.”<\/p>\n

US officials have said that even if the justice department decides extradition is warranted, a court case and possible appeals could take years.<\/p>\n

{{Arrests in Azerbaijan}}<\/p>\n

In another development on Friday, officials in Azerbaijan said they had arrested four men over suspected ties to Gulen.<\/p>\n

The four are accused of an “abuse of power” while working for a mobile phone company for having passed on private information about subscribers and their call history, Azeri prosecutors said.<\/p>\n

During a search of the home of one of the accused, investigators discovered “religious literature, disks, brochures containing speeches by Fethullah Gulen and other documents”, they said in a statement.<\/p>\n

\"Gulen's<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

{Justice department’s reported move follows pleas for extradition of man accused of orchestrating failed Turkish coup.} The US Department of Justice will dispatch a team to Turkey in the coming days to pursue allegations by the Turkish government of criminal activity by Fethullah Gulen, according to a US media report. If true, the move, first […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[101],"byline":[2474],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-27895","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-internationl","byline-al-jazeera"],"bylines":[{"id":2474,"name":"AL JAZEERA","slug":"al-jazeera","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"contributors":[{"id":2474,"name":"AL JAZEERA","slug":"al-jazeera","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27895","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27895"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27895\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27895"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27895"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27895"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=27895"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=27895"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}