By Hatice Ozdemir
ANKARA (AA) - Turkey’s justice minister said on Tuesday he expected new developments in the extradition case of Fetullah Gulen.
Speaking to journalists in parliament, Bekir Bozdag said he would convey Turkey's expectations on the extradition of Gulen to the new U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions.
Bozdag said he would have “the opportunity to communicate the expectations of Turkey on the extradition of Gulen and Fetullah Terrorist Organization [FETO] members” directly to the senior U.S. official.
He also confirmed Turkey had sent more evidence on Gulen to the U.S. authorities after Donald Trump was elected president.
In a visit to U.S. last October, Bozdag met Sessions’s predecessor Loretta Lynch to discuss Turkey's official request for the provisional arrest of Gulen.
Bozdag said he shared with his U.S. counterpart new evidence on Turkey's arrest request for Gulen but said the new material was unnecessary considering the weight of evidence already sent by the Turkish authorities.
"There is no lack of evidence in the file," stressed the minister.
Turkey has officially submitted to the U.S. evidence that Gulen’s network established a quasi-state within Turkey in an attempt to topple the government and ultimately take over the country in a bloody coup.
The Turkish authorities also issued an official request for Gulen’s extradition under a 1979 treaty between Turkey and the U.S.
At least 248 people were martyred and nearly 2,200 injured in the 15 July 2016 failed coup, which the government said was organized by followers of Fetullah Gulen, who lives in self-imposed exile in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania.