Istanbul court acquitted Metin Topuz of charges of political and military espionage (Representation)
Istanbul:
An American consulate official was sentenced to nearly nine years in prison in Turkey on Thursday for “assisting an armed terrorist group” which Ankara accuses of a failed coup in 2016.
Metin Topuz, who worked as a liaison officer for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) in Istanbul, was arrested in 2017 and imprisoned on Thursday for eight years and nine months, the official Anadolu news agency reported.
He was charged with contacting the police and a prosecutor suspected of having ties to the American Muslim preacher Fethullah Gulen, who Ankara says organized the coup attempt in 2016. Gulen dismisses the charges.
Topuz, a Turkish citizen, denied the allegations in court, the private news agency DHA reported.
A lawyer for Topuz, contacted by AFP, confirmed the conviction and indicated that an appeals court should decide to maintain it.
In previous hearings, Topuz had declared to the judge that his contacts with senior police officials or prosecutors at the time were entirely “part of my job as a translator and deputy liaison officer at the DEA”.
The Istanbul court acquitted Topuz for political and military espionage.
The U.S. Embassy, whose staff regularly attended hearings in support of Topuz and his family, has often stated that there is no credible evidence against him.
The US Consul General, Daria Darnel, and the Acting Public Affairs Officer, Stephanie Kuck, attended the Thursday session.
‘New era’
Topuz’s initial arrest in 2017 sparked a diplomatic crisis with Turkey and the United States suspending visa services for some time.
The latest verdict is likely to create new tensions in bilateral relations, the two NATO allies repairing the fences following disagreements over Syria, Ankara’s purchase of the Russian S-400 defense systems and the refusal of the United States to extradite Gülen.
On the positive side, Turkish military aircraft transported medical supplies to Washington to help the United States fight the coronavirus.
In an interview with state TV channel TRT this week, Erdogan praised cooperation with the United States in Libya, saying that Ankara and Washington are approaching a “new era” in their relations.
Since the attempt to overthrow Erdogan, tens of thousands of people have been accused of being linked to Gülen and more than 100,000 people have been laid off or suspended from their jobs in the public sector.
Ankara has been criticized by its Western allies and its human rights activists for repression, which they claim has undermined democracy. Turkish officials say the raids are necessary to remove Gülen’s influence from public institutions.
(With the exception of the title, this story was not edited by GalacticGaming staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
