Turkey indicts father of NBA's Kanter as terror group member: report

Mehmet Kanter, the father of New York Knicks center Enes Kanter, has been indicted by a Turkish court on charges he was “a member of a terrorist organization,” Turkish state media reported on Monday.

کد خبر: ۸۰۹۳۷۰

تاریخ: ۲۹ خرداد ۱۳۹۷ - ۰۸:۵۵

The indictment says the elder Kanter was contacted by 127 people with ties to exiled, U.S.-based Islamic cleric Fethullah Gulen, whose religious movement has been designated as a terrorist group by Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan.

Erdogan has accused Gulen of being behind a failed coup attempt in 2016, allegations Gulen has denied.

State-run Anadolu news agency said prosecutors would seek a sentence of up to 10 years for Kanter, who is a former professor.

Enes Kanter, who has been an outspoken critic of Erdogan, asked for support on Twitter and said he would continue to call out the regime for its “destruction of Turkish democracy and gross human right’s violations.”

“I will continue to keep fighting for Human Rights and Freedom of Speech,” he said in a post on Monday.

“Justice and Democracy above all. I will stand for what I believe in. All I’m doing is trying to be voice of innocent people,” he said.

“Keep my family, innocent people in your prayers,” he wrote before adding the hashtag #DictatorErdogan.

Last year, Anadolu reported that Turkish prosecutors had asked that Enes Kanter be jailed for up to four years for insulting Erdogan.