Turkey asks Germany to extradite key coup suspect

BERLIN

Turkey has asked Germany to extradite former colonel Ilhami Polat, one of the key figures of the July 2016 defeated coup attempt, officials said on Monday.

Polat, who is accused of organizing the takeover at the Land Forces Military School in Ankara, had fled to Greece after the defeated coup attempt, and later came to Germany and applied for asylum.

A senior Turkish official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told Anadolu Agency that Turkey has formally asked Germany to extradite Polat to face charges for attempting to overthrow the democratically elected government.

The ex-colonel’s wife Suzan Polat told prosecutors in 2017 that her husband took part in the coup attempt on the orders of Fetullah Gulen, the U.S.-based leader of Fetullah Terrorist Organization (FETO).

FETO and its U.S.-based leader Fetullah Gulen orchestrated the defeated coup, which left 251 people martyred and nearly 2,200 injured.

Ankara accuses FETO of being behind a long-running campaign to overthrow the state through infiltration into the Turkish institutions, particularly the military, police, and judiciary.