Pro-Erdoğan targets daily the former police chief on Turkey’s extradition list from Sweden
A former Turkish police chief living in exile in Sweden who is on a list of political dissidents whose extradition is sought by the Turkish government has been targeted by a pro-government newspaper that revealed his home address and published secretly taken photos, Turkish minute reported.
Sabah daily targeted Murat Çetiner, a former police chief involved in investigating the Turkish-based activities of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Quds Force (IRGC-QF). Çetiner is one of the political dissidents whose extradition Turkey is demanding from the Swedish government in exchange for dropping its objection to the Nordic country’s NATO membership.
On Tuesday, Sabah published secretly taken photos of Çetiner walking by a lake with his wife. The newspaper also revealed Çetiner’s address in addition to publishing pictures of his house and car.
Sabah said Çetiner lived a “luxurious life” in Sweden, living in a TL 9 million ($483,626) “villa” and driving a TL 3 million ($161,208) Mercedes.
It was again the newspaper’s news coordinator, Abdurrahman Şimşek, who is suspected of having links to Turkey’s National Intelligence Organization (MİT), who followed Çetiner to Stockholm to find out his address and take pictures of him.
Şimşek also recently targeted three journalists in exile, Cevheri Güven in Germany and Abdullah Bozkurt and Bülent Keneş in Sweden, revealing their addresses and secretly taking photos on Sabah’s front page.
Bozkurt, a Swedish-based Turkish journalist and head of the Nordic Monitor website, commented on Sabah’s report in a series of tweets on Tuesday.
“Apparently … MİT is now doing the dirty bidding work for Iran’s intelligence service in Sweden by running a surveillance on … Çetiner who was part of a team to uncover IRGC operations in Turkey,” Bozkurt said.
Apparently the Turkish intelligence service MIT is now doing the dirty bidding work for #Irans intelligence i #Sweden by running a surveillance on former police chief Murat Cetiner who was part of a team that exposed IRGC operations in #Turkey. pic.twitter.com/TfNjRmkqRk
— Abdullah Bozkurt (@abdbozkurt) 25 October 2022
Çetiner was involved in an investigation targeting IRGC leaders and their alleged Turkish collaborators and was dropped in 2014 after three years by prosecutor İrfan Fidan, who was appointed by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to a position on Turkey’s Supreme Court last year.
Investigators, prosecutors and judges previously involved in the criminal investigation were all fired and later arrested on trumped-up charges as part of a crackdown on the police and judiciary that followed a graft probe targeting Erdoğan cronies in late 2013.
Çetiner moved to Sweden to escape a similar fate, but Turkish intelligence has been “breathing down his neck,” Bozkurt said, adding that the U.S. government sanctioned key suspects named in the preliminary investigation in May, including Hakkı Selçuk Şanlı, Abdulhamit Çelik, Seyyid Cemal Gündüz and IRGC official Behnam Shahriyari, “all closely linked to Hakan Fidan, Turkish Intel chief.”
In May this year, the United States sanctioned key suspects named in the investigation run by Murat and his colleagues. Hakkı Selçuk Şanlı, Abdulhamit Çelik, Seyyid Cemal Gündüz and IRGC official Behnam Shahriyari, all closely linked to Hakan Fidan, Turkish Intel chief. https://t.co/MQp3Ql42d9
— Abdullah Bozkurt (@abdbozkurt) 25 October 2022
NATO member Turkey is threatening to derail Sweden and Finland’s bid to join the Western defense alliance if they do not extradite dozens of people Ankara accuses of “terrorism”, including Çetiner.
A non-binding agreement Sweden and NATO aspirant Finland signed with Turkey in June commits them to “quickly and thoroughly” review Ankara’s requests for suspects linked to the Gülen movement and the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which is recognized as a terrorist organization by Turkey and large parts of the international community.
Both Swedish and Finnish government officials said they will continue to respect national and international laws regarding Turkey’s extradition requests and that the decision on extradition will be up to independent authorities and courts.
The seven Gülen-linked political dissidents whose extradition Turkey is seeking from Sweden, according to a report by state news agency Anadolu earlier this month, are writer Harun Tokak, journalists Bülent Keneş and Levent Kenez, Yılmaz Aytan, Orhan Er, Harun Ayvaz and Murat Çetiner, all of whom face trials in Turkey over their alleged links to the Gülen movement.
Some alleged PKK members are also on Turkey’s list, according to Anadolu, which said Sweden had previously rejected Turkey’s extradition requests for those people.