Turkey has asked Germany to investigate media reports that a key suspect in last year’s attempted coup is living in the country, Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu said Wednesday.
Adil Öksüz is said to be the civilian leader of air force personnel loyal to the Fetullah Terrorist Organization (FETÖ), which staged the July 15 putsch attempt.
“Some reports have come out recently about the presence of FETÖ fugitive Adil Öksüz in Germany and even his whereabouts,” Çavuşoğlu told state broadcaster TRT.
“As the Foreign Ministry, we issued a diplomatic note to Germany.”
He said Turkey had called for Berlin to arrest and extradite Öksüz if he is found to be in Germany.
The diplomatic request was sent to the German Foreign Ministry from the Turkish embassy in Berlin.
Last week, Turkish newspapers claimed Öksüz had been seen in February in Frankfurt and Ulm by Turkish residents.
The Yeni Şafak newspaper reported that he had applied for asylum in the southern state of Baden-Wurttemberg.
The theology professor is alleged to be the “imam” to FETÖ members in the air force and a key link between U.S.-based FETÖ leader Fetullah Gülen and the coup plotters in Turkey.
Both Öksüz and Gülen are being tried in absentia in a case involving 486 defendants accused of helping orchestrate the coup bid from Akıncı air force base north of Ankara.
Öksüz and another defendant, businessman Kemal Batmaz, were allegedly caught on camera returning to Istanbul from the U.S. two days before the attempted takeover. Authorities say they had visited Gülen in Pennsylvania to discuss the plot.
Both men were arrested near Akıncı on July 16 but Öksüz was released and then disappeared.
