US-based preacher Fethullah Gulen has urged Washington to reject Turkey’s efforts to extradite him and labelled as “ridiculous” the claim he was behind an attempted coup. ‘Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan today once again demonstrated he will go to any length necessary to solidify his power and persecute his critics’, Mr Gulen said in a statement.
‘I urge the US Government to reject any effort to abuse the extradition process to carry out political vendettas’.
Mr Gulen, who has lived in self-imposed exile in the United States since 1999, denies any involvement. Mr Gulen is the spiritual leader of the Hizmet movement, which promotes moderate Islam across dozens of countries and is dubbed a terrorist group by the Turkish Government.
Turkey’s Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said his Government had sent four files to the United States in a bid to secure the extradition of a man Ankara brands a ‘traitor’.

Source: abc.net.au