WASHINGTON (Sputnik) – Former US National Security Advisor Michael Flynn’s business partner faces charges of illegal lobbying for Turkey, the Washington Post reported on Monday.
A federal court in Virginia indicted Bijan Kian with acting as an agent of a foreign government and conspiring to get Turkish cleric Fethullah Gulen extradited from the United States, the Washington Post reported.
The report added that a Turkish businessman accused of paying Kian and Flynn is also named in the indictment, but is not in the United States.
The day before, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu announced that the United States was working on the extradition of the cleric to Turkey. However, no confirmation of this information has followed from the US side.
Still, media reports about possible extradition of Gulen continue to appear. Thus, in November, NBC News reported that President Donald Trump was looking for ways to extradite Gulen from the United States to appease Turkey and ease its pressure on the government of Saudi Arabia for its role in the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the consulate in Istanbul.
Fethullah Gulen has been accused by Turkey of orchestrating a failed military coup on July 15, 2016. Gulen has repeatedly denied taking part in the coup. He has been living in the United States since 1999.
Since the coup failed, approximately 80,000 people have been arrested in Turkey over their alleged links to the cleric.
The US probe into the Turkey case started in 2016, after Flynn accused Gulen in an article published in The Hill newspaper of being radical Islamist. Investigators regard this article as part of a bigger lobbying scheme, where Flynn discussed with senior Turkish officials in December 2016 a possible deal under which the former would be paid to organize Gulen’s return to Turkey.
Sourse: sputniknews.com
