Germany issues warrant for key coup suspect Adil Öksüz: Turkish FM

ANTALYA

Germany has issued a search warrant for Adil Öksüz, a key figure linked to the July 2016 coup attempt whose whereabouts have been unknown since the attempted putsch, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu said on June 13.

“We have gotten in touch with Germany and Germany has issued a search warrant for Adil Öksüz,” Çavuşoğlu said in southern province of Antalya.

“What Germany will do after finding [Adil Öksüz] is surrender him to us under the framework of the agreements and the law,” he added.

German Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Adebahr told a press conference in Berlin on June 13 that the country is continuing to evaluate the Gülen network issue based on information from various sources including the German Embassy to Turkey, Turkish sources and partners.

“In light of all this information, we cannot disregard the fact that members of the Gülen network movement were engaged in the coup attempt in Turkey,” state-run Anadolu Agency reported Adebahr as saying.

German Interior Ministry spokesperson Eleonore Petermann also said at the same event that she had no new information on the whereabouts of Gülen.

Öksüz disappeared right after July 15, 2016 coup attempt, widely believed to have been masterminded by the network of U.S.-based Islamic preacher Fethullah Gülen. 

Turkish officials have repeatedly appealed to the German government to arrest and extradite Öksüz, claiming that he was hiding in Germany.

Last November, all German police departments were asked to inform the Federal Criminal Police Office of any findings that could help them identify the whereabouts of the suspect, state-run Anadolu Agency said on June 13.

Öksüz, known as the Gülen movement’s “imam of the Air Force,” was detained near the Akıncı Air Base in the capital Ankara on the morning of July 16, 2016, only to be released by Judge Çetin Sönmez on July 18, after which he went on the run.