Court arrests former Turkey international goalkeeper on Gülen charges

ISTANBUL

An Istanbul court on Aug. 28 ordered the arrest of former Turkish international goalkeeper Ömer Çatkıç over allege links to the network of the Fethullah Gülen, the main suspect in the cases into the July 15, 2016 coup attempt.

Çatkıç had testified to police on Aug. 21 over claims that he had ByLock, a messaging application used almost exclusively by members of the Fethullahist Terrorist Organization (FETÖ), installed on his phone.

The Istanbul 7th criminal court of peace ordered his arrest.

The 42-year-old goalkeeper ended his career at Antalyaspor five years ago.

Çatkıç is not the first Turkey international footballer who has faced charges over links to the Gülen movement.

Most recently, Bekir İrtegün, who was released by his club Başakşehirspor on July 10, was detained in Istanbul on July 28 and released the next day.

Hakan Şükür, a former Galatasaray and Turkish national team striker, was the first to be charged by prosecutors over Gülen links just days after the coup attempt.
 
Şükür and Arif Erdem, another Galatasaray legend who faces the same charges, remain at large.

Former Galatasaray defender İsmail Demiriz, who was arrested in September last year, was released in February this year while Uğur Tütüneker was released after briefly being detained.