No single FETÖ member extradited by Western allies

OYA ARMUTÇU- ANKARA

Türkiye’s allies, including the United States and European powers, have not extradited a single FETÖ member out of a total of 633 requests for extradition since the July 15 failed coup attempt, according to the data by the Justice Ministry.

The ministry demanded the extradition of 227 FETÖ members, including Fethullah Gülen, from the U.S. and 406 members from the EU member states, the ministry informed, stressing that these countries argued “there was not sufficient evidence for the extradition of these people.”

The data by the ministry has revealed that Türkiye prepared 1,133 dossiers for the extradition of FETÖ members from 110 countries over the past six years after Türkiye narrowly escaped a coup at the hands of the FETÖ members.

Many FETÖ members, including senior military officials and other civilian officials, who directly took part in the coup attempt escaped from the country mainly to the EU nations after the coup was thwarted. Some 251 persons were killed during the coup attempt in which the land and air forces of the Turkish Armed Forces were used by the FETÖ members.

One of the top destinations for the extradition campaign was the U.S. as the leader of the FETÖ terror organization, Fethullah Gülen was residing in this country since the late 1990s. Along with Gülen, the top members of the FETÖ are also residing and running the FETÖ’s different operations from this country.

The second target was Europe as many FETÖ members fled to the EU countries following the coup attempt in 2016. Türkiye sought the extradition of 129 people from Germany, 97 people from Greece, 52 from Belgium, 33 from the Netherlands and 31 from the United Kingdom. But there were no positive responses from these countries to Türkiye’s extradition requests.

Romania extradited two FETÖ members and Algeria one member upon Türkiye’s requests, according to the ministry data.

Türkiye has recently renewed its request for the extradition of terrorists from Sweden and Finland in line with a trilateral memorandum of understanding for the two Nordic states’ admission to NATO. They agreed to cooperate with Türkiye on the anti-terror fight and extradite terrorists who are being sheltered on their territories.

Turkish justice completed judicial procedures

In the meantime, according to the official figures, all 289 cases over the July 15 coup attempt have been concluded. Courts in Istanbul and Ankara have each heard 56 cases while the remaining 177 cases were heard in different provinces across the country.

Verdicts about 8,725 people were given in a total of 289 cases, the data shows. Out of all these suspects, some 1,634 were sentenced with aggravated life sentence, 1,366 persons with life sentence, and 1,891 persons between 14 months to 20 years jail sentences, while 2,870 people were acquitted of all charges.