Rio de Janeiro, April 25, 2019 – Turkey is seeking to extradite a businessman from Brazil over his links to US-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen, his lawyer and officials said Thursday, in a case that has alarmed Turks living in the Latin American country.
Ali Sipahi, a restaurant owner in Sao Paulo who has lived in Brazil for 12 years, faces charges in Ankara of belonging to a “terrorist organization” involved in the failed coup against Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in July 2016, Brazil’s Supreme Court said. Sipahi, 31, holds dual Turkish and Brazilian citizenship. He has been detained since early April awaiting a court hearing scheduled for May 3. “This is a case of obvious abuse on the part of the Turkish government,” Theo Dias, the lawyer representing Sipahi, told AFP.
“The indictment is clearly part of the international campaign of political persecution that President Erdogan unleashed against sympathizers of the Hizmet movement and its leader Gulen.” Sipahi, who is married and has a child, is involved in the Brazil-Turkey Cultural Center (CCBT) and Turkey-Brazil Chamber of Commerce and Industry, which are connected to Hizmet. He has been targeted for depositing money in Turkish bank Asya, which has been linked to Gulen, Dias said.
The case has caused “huge apprehension” in Brazil’s Turkish community, who fears Erdogan may come after them next. Mustafa Goktepe, president of the CCBT and currently in the United States, said he would not return to Brazil until Sipahi was released. “I can be taken like my friend,” Goktepe told AFP. “We have a bank account at Bank Asya like more than six million people. The accusation is absurd.”
Gulen, who lives in self-exile in the US state of Pennsylvania, is accused of ordering the attempted overthrow of Erdogan, but he strongly denies any involvement. Ankara calls Gulen’s Hizmet (Service) movement a terrorist group but followers insist they are part of a peaceful organization promoting moderate Islam and education. Tens of thousands of people have been arrested by Turkey in the crackdown that followed the attempted putsch and the Turkish authorities have also brought back suspects in secret operations from foreign countries including Ukraine and Kosovo.
By AFP
