Fatih Göktaş, general manager of the Lumina School in Romania, which is linked to the Gülenist Terror Group (FETÖ), will be tried on charges of bribing Bucharest's former deputy mayor.
An accusation by the Romanian Anti-Corruption Directorate (DNA) said a manager of a private education institution in Bucharest that was related to the approval of permits for high school construction, bribed the official in 2014.
According to court documents, three defendants, Alin Cristian Cimpoeru, Fatih Göktaş and Akçael Selahattin Murat, are mentioned in the allegation that they bribed former Deputy Mayor of Bucharest Metropolitan Municipality Cornel Pieptea with 65,000 euros ($72,918).
FETÖ and its U.S.-based leader Fetullah Gülen orchestrated the defeated coup of July 15, 2016, which left 250 people dead and nearly 2,200 injured. Ankara also accuses FETÖ of being behind a long-running campaign to overthrow the state through the infiltration of Turkish institutions, particularly the military, police and judiciary.
FETÖ maintains a vast network of schools and other educational facilities throughout the world, with the U.S. being the terrorist group’s primary focus. These facilities, often presented as Turkish or international schools, primarily recruit FETÖ members and sympathizers as teachers and administrators. FETÖ schools are often accused of money laundering and financing the shadowy group’s activities through the schools’ profits and deals with FETÖ-affiliated businesses and vendors.
Ankara’s relentless efforts in taking over Turkish-branded institutions from FETÖ since 2014 have found some success but the terrorists' networks in Europe and the U.S. remain untouched.
