Arrest warrant for ex- top CIA figure over coup

Isytanbul, Dec. 1: Turkey on Friday issued an arrest warrant for a former top CIA official over alleged links to the group blamed for last year’s attempted overthrow of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, state media reported.

An Istanbul prosecutor ordered the detention of Graham Fuller, ex- vice chairman of the CIA’s National Intelligence Council, as part of an investigation into the movement led by USbased Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen and the July 15, 2016 failed coup.

Turkey accuses Gulen of masterminding the attempted putsch and has dubbed his movement the “Fethullah Terrorist Organisation” ( FETO).

Mr Gulen rejects Turkey’s claims and the group denies any links to terror.

The warrant accuses the former CIA official of “violating the constitution” and “attempting to overthrow the Turkish government or stop it from doing its duty”.

He is also suspected of “procuring information that must remain a state secret for political or military espionage”, staterun news agency Anadolu reported.

Mr Fuller said in a Huffington Post piece that he wrote a letter as a private citizen in support of Mr Gulen’s green card application in 2006 because he “did not

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believe that Mr Gulen constituted a security threat to the US”.

His warrant is part of the same probe which has already detained prominent businessman and civil society activist Osman Kavala over links to the coup bid as well as Metin Topuz, a US consulate employee in Istanbul, Anadolu said.

Officials involved in the probe are also investigating Henri Barkey, professor of international relations at Lehigh University, and former main opposition Republican People’s Party MP Aykan Erdemir, who is now based in the US.