Key suspect in killing of academic Hablemitoğlu arrested in Ukraine

ANKARA

Ukraine has arrested the suspected murderer of Turkish academic Necip Hablemitoğlu, Turkish security sources said on Dec. 16.

Sought by a Turkish warrant and Interpol Red Notice since May, Nuri Gökhan B. was first arrested this July in Ukraine for possible extradition, but won the right to house arrest with electronic monitoring, state-run Anadolu Agency cited the sources as saying.

It noted that the arrested suspect was a fugitive linked to FETÖ.

Now in custody again, the suspect is expected to be extradited to Turkey following a decision by Ukrainian authorities, said the sources, who asked not to be named due to restrictions on speaking to the media.

Atatürk University’s Necip Hablemitoğlu, known for his research and books on FETÖ, branding it a criminal organization, was killed in 2002, but the murder was never solved.

In 2015, prosecutors in Turkey’s Ankara launched an investigation into FETÖ’s involvement in unsolved murders committed between 2000 and 2013.

Those cases include the deaths of Behçet Oktay, the head of a Special Police Forces Unit who is alleged to have shot himself in Ankara in 2009, candidate judge Didem Yaylalı who was found dead in a hotel in Fethiye in the southwestern of Muğla and the killing of a member of Turkey’s Council of State in 2006.

FETÖ and its U.S.-based leader Fetullah Gülen orchestrated the defeated coup attempt on July 15, 2016, which left 251 people who resisted it killed.

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.