Gökhan Şahin Sönmezateş, a brigadier general who planned and coordinated the assassination attempt targeting President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan during the coup bid, had suspicious ties to the Gülenist Terror Group (FETÖ) involving money transfers from FETÖ-linked companies, prosecutors say.

Sönmezateş was captured after the coup attempt and remains in jail pending trial on charges of attempting to kill the president who was vacationing in southwestern Turkey with his family when pro-coup troops raided his hotel. Erdoğan, notified of the coup attempt at the last minute, managed to dodge two teams of assassins from an elite unit of the army.

The former general, who served in the intelligence department of the Turkish Air Forces (TSK) between 2014 and 2016, funneled millions to two FETÖ-linked companies from the army coffers, the indictment by the Ankara Chief Prosecutor's Office says. The indictment, based on an investigation by a state-run financial crimes agency, shows Sönmezateş had financial transactions with five members of FETÖ, including three men linked to the coup attempt.

Between 2014 and 2016, Sönmezateş, through the intelligence department he served, made 10 financial transactions to a software company linked to FETÖ. The transactions amounted to more than TL 7 million ($1.9 million). From 2015 to 2016, Sönmezateş diverted the army's funds for the intelligence department to an aviation company whose one partner is charged with FETÖ membership and wired more than $2 million.

Currently on trial with his team of assassins, Sönmezateş has told the court that he was instructed to "take" Erdoğan by Semih Terzi, another brigadier general, who was killed in the capital Ankara as he tried to take over a military base.

Sönmezateş was in command of 28 officers from different military units gathered for the purpose of assassinating or capturing President Erdoğan. He was captured in the capital Ankara days after the coup attempt. The former general had denied ties to FETÖ. "I would invoke the remorse law if I had been a member of FETÖ," he told the court, referring to a law that allows the defendants to have reduced sentences in exchange for pleading guilty to FETÖ membership and testifying about their links to the terrorist group.

He would have been appointed the "head of national intelligence" if the Gülenist junta succeeded in seizing power. A separate indictment against the soldiers says Fetullah Gülen, the elusive FETÖ leader, personally approved the plan to capture or assassinate Erdoğan during the putsch attempt, like he did for other coup plans. Gülen is also believed to have ordered the captures of strategic locations, from the presidential palace to the army's headquarters.

The indictment by the Ankara prosecutors says Sönmezateş also coordinated pro-coup troops' efforts to capture military commanders in Istanbul who opposed the military junta. The prosecutors say it was Sönmezateş who brought to an elite team of troops from the central city of Konya to Istanbul to abduct the commanders and take them to Akıncı, the military base where top military brass opposing the coup was held.

The former general was also a member of Peace At Home Council of the putschists and helped define the strategic targets to be attacked during the coup attempt, according to the indictment.