Ergenekon coup plot case suspect returns to Turkey

ISTANBUL

Bedrettin Dalan, one of the fugitive suspects in the Ergenekon coup plot case, returned to Turkey in the early hours of March 10 after five years abroad, after his arrest warrant was dropped.

Dalan arrived in Istanbul shortly after midnight on a Lufthansa flight from Frankfurt. He was welcomed in Atatürk International Airport’s VIP room by his relatives and was picked up by a private vehicle.

The former Istanbul Mayor and the founder of the city’s Yeditepe University had left the country in November 2008, shortly before police forces launched a raid into his İstek Foundation in Istanbul as part of the Ergenekon coup plot investigation. Later, an arrest warrant for Dalan was issued by the court in April 2010, before being dropped.