Ankara: Turkey has issued an arrest warrant against one of its most celebrated soccer players, former international striker Hakan Sukur, ordering the seizure of his assets as part of an investigation into last month’s failed coup, state media said.
Prosecutors accuse Sukur of “being a member of an armed terror group”, a reference to the organisation of the US-based cleric Fethullah Gulen, who Ankara says was behind the abortive putsch. Gulen, however, denied the accusation. After football, Sukur went into politics and was in 2011 elected to parliament for President Tayyip Erdogan’s AK Party. He resigned in 2013 after a corruption probe that targeted Erdogan and his inner circle, siding with the movement of Gulen.
The player’s father, Sermet Sukur, was detained on Friday in the northwestern province of Sakarya, state-run Anadolu Agency reported. A court on Thursday had ordered his arrest, as well as that of Sukur.
A court ruled on Friday that all bank accounts, vehicles and other assets belonging to Sukur, the national team’s all-time top scorer, and his father be seized, Anadolu said.
Sukur lives in the United States at present and is among some 350 people being sought by the Turkish authorities. He faced a separate court case in June where he was accused of insulting Erdogan. The case is yet to be concluded.
The footballer denied having fled to the United States because of the insult case, saying he only “moved” there, rather than running away. He has not made any comment in relation to the arrest warrant.
The Turkish court, through a probe, identified Hakan and his father as providing financial support to the Fethullahist Terrorist Organization (Feto). Sermet was detained after being caught in a mosque in the province’s Adapazari district.
According to the inspection, the Sukurs had a number of real estate properties across the country, with apartments in Sakarya, Antalya, Bodrum and Istanbul’s Bakirkoy, Besiktas and Buyukcekmece districts, in addition to buildings in Adapazari and Sapanca and fields in Kandira. Officers have also found that Sermet built luxury villas on a 10 decare-field in the Serdivan district of Sakarya.
Tax inspectors have also found that Sukur used to own a preparatory school that was closed as part of a previous FETO probe in central Adapazari.
Turkey accuses US-based cleric Gulen of orchestrating the coup attempt. Gulen, who has lived in self-imposed exile for almost 20 years, is accused of running a decades-long campaign to overthrow the state through the infiltration of Turkish institutions, particularly the military, police and judiciary.
Sukur and his two other former teammates from Galatasaray and the Turkish national team had recently been accused of serving the Gulenists for decades.
