‘Court rules to release Ihsan Aslan on judicial control’
Two other Turks, deported from Malaysia, have been put in pre-trial detention, says Turkey Purge.
PETALING JAYA: Turgay Karaman and Ismet Ozcelik, two of the three Turkish nationals earlier deported by Malaysian officials, were put in pre-trial detention yesterday, the Turkey Purge news portal reported.
It added that the court ruled to release on judicial control Ihsan Aslan, the other Turkish citizen who was forcefully returned to Turkey earlier this month.
On May 11, Aslan’s wife had urged people to stop linking her husband to two other Turkish citizens, also detained under the Security Offences (Special Measures) Act 2012 (Sosma).
Her lawyer, Noor Svetlana Mohd Noor Nordin, said Aslan’s situation was different from that of his two countrymen.
She said Aslan’s wife and child are Malaysians and besides that, the background of Aslan is also different from the other two men.
“When I spoke to Aslan, he told me he doesn’t know one of the suspects, while the other was merely an acquaintance,” Noor Svetlana told reporters.
Aslan and Karaman were detained on May 2, while Ozcelik was later arrested under Sosma as well. The trio were deported to Turkey on May 11.
They were taken into custody upon their arrival in Ankara as part of investigations into the Gulen movement, which the government accuses of masterminding a July 15, 2016 coup attempt. The movement, however, has denied any involvement.
Turkey Purge is a watchdog web portal that keeps track of alleged civil rights abuses and the political crackdown under President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Turkey Purge said even though Inspector-General of Police Khalid Abu Bakar had earlier told reporters that the Turks were arrested without any request from the Turkish government, Turkey’s state-run Anadolu agency (AA) claimed otherwise.
It said officials from the Turkish National Intelligence Organisation (MIT), an anti-terror police unit, and an anaesthetist were tasked with participating in the operation in Kuala Lumpur.
The anaesthetist was standing by to intervene in Ozcelik’s detention if he resisted, the agency added.
Ozcelik is a former board member at Mevlana University, which was closed down over Gulen links in the aftermath of the July 2016 coup attempt.
Karaman was the headmaster of an international school in Ipoh, the portal claimed.
Aslan was a member of the Malaysian-Turkish Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Kuala Lumpur, it said. Aslan, a businessman, had been in Malaysia for 15 years.
Several human rights organisations, including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and the UN Human Rights Office, had said the trio faced the risk of torture in Turkey where post-coup detainees are reportedly subjected to maltreatment at detention centres.
Erdogan had earlier called on foreign governments to punish Gulen followers in their own countries. However, only a few countries have complied.
Turkey has already detained more than 120,000 people over their alleged ties to the movement at home before spreading its crackdown overseas, Turkey Purge said.
It said yesterday, Georgia detained the principal of a Gulen-linked school while Myanmar also cancelled a Turkish teacher’s passport at Turkey’s request.
Stop linking husband to other 2, says Turkish man’s wife
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