Cleric’s Lawyers Want US Suit Backed by Turkey Tossed

Turkish Islamic preacher Fethullah Gulen is pictured at his residence in Saylorsburg, Pa. Gulen is charged in Turkey with plotting to overthrow the government in a case his supporters call politically motivated. (AP Photo/Selahattin Sevi)
Turkish Islamic preacher Fethullah Gulen is pictured at his residence in Saylorsburg, Pa. Gulen is charged in Turkey with plotting to overthrow the government in a case his supporters call politically motivated. (AP Photo/Selahattin Sevi)


Date posted: February 5, 2016

MICHAEL RUBINKAM

Attorneys for a reclusive Muslim cleric living in exile in Pennsylvania asked a federal judge late Wednesday to dismiss a lawsuit that claims he orchestrated human rights abuses in his native Turkey, denouncing it as “pure political theater” by the Turkish government.

Turkey is believed to be funding the U.S. civil suit against Fethullah Gulen as part of a crackdown on the cleric and his movement by President Recep Erdogan.

The suit contends Gulen ordered sympathetic police, prosecutors and judges in Turkey to target members of a rival spiritual movement critical of his teachings.

His lawyers called it a baseless accusation.

“This lawsuit is pure political theater and a misuse of American judicial resources. It is the brainchild of the Turkish government and part of a broad campaign to silence Mr. Gulen, one of the strongest voices for peace and moderation in the Muslim world,” the attorneys said in a filing Wednesday night.

They added: “The spy thriller allegations as they pertain to Mr. Gulen are pure nonsense.”

Gulen, who has lived in the United States since 1999, has criticized Erdogan, his onetime ally, over the Turkish leader’s increasingly authoritarian rule.

The suit was filed in December on behalf of three men who claim Gulen sympathizers in Turkish law enforcement planted evidence, fabricated search warrants, conducted illegal wiretaps and ultimately arrested and detained the men on trumped-up charges.

It was filed by lawyer Robert Amsterdam six weeks after the Turkish government hired him to conduct a “global investigation” of Gulen, an Islamic moderate with as many as 4 million followers worldwide.

Amsterdam said in a statement Wednesday that “the public is entitled to learn both the international scope and reach of the Gulen organization, which is headquartered in the United States, as well as the type of contemptible conduct in which the organization is willing to engage.”

The suit is part of a broad campaign against Gulen’s movement in Turkey and abroad. The Erdogan regime has carried out a purge of civil servants suspected of ties to the movement, seized businesses and closed some media organizations. Gulen has been charged criminally with plotting to overthrow the government, and was placed on trial in absentia last month.

With the backing of the Turkish government, Amsterdam also has focused on a network of about 150 publicly funded U.S. charter schools started by Gulen’s followers. State and federal authorities have probed some of the schools amid allegations of financial mismanagement and visa fraud, though no criminal charges have been filed.

Amsterdam filed a lawsuit Wednesday against a building contractor that worked for the Gulen-inspired Harmony chain of charter schools in Texas, asserting the company failed to produce contracts and other documents he sought under the state’s open-records law.

Source: ABC News , February 3, 2016


Related News

Imran Khan denounces expected closure of Pak-Turk schools

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan condemned the expected move to close Pak-Turk schools across the country.
“We stand firmly by Turkish democracy but closure of Pak-Turk schools in Pakistan, which has a high illiteracy rate, could be disastrous for the country,” he said.

‘I don’t have a home right now’: Turkish NBA player Enes Kanter talks activism, basketball

“I don’t have a home right now,” Kanter told CBC News Network’s Steve Niles on Tuesday. “If I was anywhere else besides in America, besides Canada, yes, I believe my life could be in danger because I get death threats almost every day [from] Erdogan’s goons.

Local Turks [in Chicago] fear for safety of friends, family overseas after failed coup

“You see the pictures, ears cut off, eyes are bruised and noses are broken; they’re putting those pictures out,” Parlak said. “(Erdogan is) saying to the whole world, ‘I have the power and I’m going to do anything in my power and nobody can stop me,’ and that’s the part that is scary.”

Turkish imam spy affair in Germany extends across Europe

The Federal Prosecutors Office (GBA) said in a statement no arrests were made in the raids in the states of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and Rhineland-Pfalz, which aimed to collect evidence into imams conducting alleged espionage against supporters of the US-based preacher Fethullah Gulen.

Turkey Systematically And Deliberately Jails Women As Part Of Fear And Intimidation Campaign

Thousands of women, many with small children to take care of, were jailed in Turkey in an unprecedented crackdown and subjected to torture and ill-treatment in detention centers and prisons as part of the government’s systematic campaign of intimidation and persecution of critics and opponents.

The Real Enemy Within Turkey

On the hot evening of August 20 in Gaziantep, Turkey, a still-unidentified person wearing an explosive vest laced with ball bearings navigated a series of narrow alleyways in the city’s Akdere neighborhood. He approached a wedding put on by a Kurdish family from Siirt; they were hosting a Henna night, a traditional ritual where the hands of the bride-to-be are tattooed with temporary ink. At 10:50 pm, the young man’s bomb exploded, killing 54 people. At least 31 were under the age of 18.

Latest News

Fethullah Gulen – man of education, peace and dialogue – passes away

Fethullah Gülen’s Condolence Message for South African Human Rights Defender Archbishop Desmond Tutu

Hizmet Movement Declares Core Values with Unified Voice

Ankara systematically tortures supporters of Gülen movement, Kurds, Turkey Tribunal rapporteurs say

Erdogan possessed by Pharaoh, Herod, Hitler spirits?

Devious Use of International Organizations to Persecute Dissidents Abroad: The Erdogan Case

A “Controlled Coup”: Erdogan’s Contribution to the Autocrats’ Playbook

Why is Turkey’s Erdogan persecuting the Gulen movement?

Purge-victim man sent back to prison over Gulen links despite stage 4 cancer diagnosis

In Case You Missed It

Islamophobia Network Targets Top Performing American Schools

Romania Refuses to Extradite Journalist to Turkey

Turkish school to train Brazil’s math geniuses

Erdoğan says his gov’t will carry out ‘witch hunt’

New Hampshire Governor Maggie Hassan visited Turkish Cultural Center in Manhattan

Prime Ministry asks president to purge ‘parallel state’ in his office

Former Filipino deputy: Great that we have Kimse Yok Mu

Copyright 2025 Hizmet News