Gülenist NBA player Kanter's father faces prison for FETÖ membership


Prosecutors wrapped up an indictment against Mehmet Kanter, father of Enes Kanter, the NBA player and self-proclaimed "son" of Gülenist Terror Group (FETÖ) leader Fetullah Gülen. The older Kanter, an academic expelled from a university in Istanbul he worked at for his links to the terrorist group, faces up to ten years in prison. Prosecutors accuse him of membership of FETÖ and detailed his contacts with 127 suspected members of the group. A court approved the indictment and Mehmet Kanter, who was released with judiciary control after his detention last year, is set to appear before a court in a future date.

The New York Knicks center Enes Kanter is among the prominent names openly supporting the terrorist group he calls Hizmet (Service) Movement. He has announced that he severed his ties with his biological father after the latter denounced him publicly for his ties to the group and has tweeted that he viewed Fetullah Gülen - another U.S. resident - as his father, even going so far signing a tweet as "Enes Kanter Gülen." A hardline member of the group, Kanter himself has an arrest warrant for him in Turkey for membership of a terrorist group. The prosecutors say that Kanter has been a user of ByLock, an encrypted messaging app exclusively used - and believed to be developed by FETÖ - for correspondence between FETÖ members. He is accused of maintaining close contacts with FETÖ's senior figures and the group's other members. He has been summoned to testify in previous investigations but Kanter did not return to Turkey since FETÖ openly started a campaign to seize power in 2013.The prosecutor's office also sought an international red notice from Interpol. Like the case with other FETÖ and terror suspects, Kanter's passport was canceled and this led to rejection of his entry to Romania where he was on a promotional tour last year

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