PressTV-Britain rejects Turkey’s extradition request for Gulenists

A court in the United Kingdom has turned down a request by Turkish officials to extradite two senior members of a movement led by US-based opposition cleric Fethullah Gulen, whom the Ankara government accuses of having masterminded the July 2016 coup attempt against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

On Wednesday, the Westminster Magistrates Court dismissed the plea against Turkish businessman Hamdi Akin Ipek, religious scholar Talip Buyuk and banker Ali Celik.

The court ruled that probation conditions for the defendants, including seizure of their passports, will resume during the appeal period and they were ordered to stay in London during the process.

The most distinguished defendant of the trio is Akin Ipek, who once run a business empire in Turkey. Buyuk was a high-ranking members of the Gulenist Terror Group (FETO), and Celik was the director of the now-defunct Bank Asya.

Ipek was detained on May 23 after Turkey demanded his…

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