Senior FETÖ member sentenced to eight years in jail

ISTANBUL/EDİRNE - Anadolu Agency

A Turkish court on Jan. 12 sentenced a senior member of FETÖ to eight years in prison.

Hasan Hüseyin Günakan was detained in Kosovo in an operation jointly carried out by the Turkish and Kosovo intelligence agencies and brought back to Turkey in March 2018.

Günakan, one of the terror group's directors in the Balkans, was charged on the counts of espionage and being member of a terror group. 

The Istanbul Heavy Penal Court in its ruling dropped the espionage charges against him.

The convict is one of the six FETÖ members who were brought in a private plane to Turkey from Kosovo.

Prosecutors had demanded imprisonment for up to 28 years for them.

6 FETÖ suspects nabbed

Meanwhile, six suspected members of the FETÖ were detained in northwestern Turkey as they attempted to cross to Greece.

The suspects were held by Turkish border guards and provincial gendarmerie forces near the village of Uyuklutatar in Edirne province bordering Greece and Bulgaria in a prohibited military zone.

The suspects were later found to be members of the FETÖ terror group and were trying to cross to Greece via Turkey.

FETÖ and its U.S.-based leader Fetullah Gülen orchestrated the defeated coup on July 15, 2016, which left 251 people killed and nearly 2,200 injured.

Ankara also accuses FETÖ of being behind a long-running campaign to overthrow the state through the infiltration of Turkish institutions, particularly the military, police, and judiciary.