LONDON (AA) - A British MP was allegedly paid tens of thousands pounds to write a report on the human rights situation in Turkey by a group linked to the U.S.-based preacher Fetullah Gulen, a leading British daily reported Monday.
Turkey's government has repeatedly said the coup attempt was organized by Gulen and his Fetullah Terrorist Organization.
According to The Times article, Sir Edward Garnier, a Conservative MP for Harborough, was paid £115,994 ($152,951) in February 2015 “to co- research and author a document titled ‘A Report on the Rule of Law and Respect for Human Rights in Turkey’.”
The report, which was commissioned by The Journalists and Writers Foundation, “focused exclusively on actions by the Turkish government against Gulen-linked organizations,” the paper said. It was written at a time when Gulen’s Fetullah Terrorist Organization had been listed as a terrorist organization in Turkey.
The Journalists and Writers Foundation is said to be linked to FETO headed by Gulen, who continues to be the body’s honorary president.
“Sir Edward insists that he and the other authors of the report are not supporters or adherents of Hizmet [the Gulen movement] but wrote the report as independent English lawyers based on the evidence we had reviewed,” the paper said.
Edward, during a Commons debate in March, had also urged the reversal of the U.K.’s support for Turkey’s accession to the EU by raising “the serial and appalling human rights and rule of law abuses by the Turkish government.
“Although he mentioned his contribution to the report in his Commons statement, he did not reveal that it had been commissioned by a group linked to the Gulen movement,” the paper added.
The report was sent to prominent figures in British politics, including former Prime Minister David Cameron and former Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond.
Turkey survived a deadly coup attempt on July 15 by rogue elements within the military that killed more than 230 people and injured nearly 2,200 others.
Gulen is accused of a long-running campaign to overthrow the state through the infiltration of Turkish institutions, particularly the military, police, and judiciary, forming what is commonly known as the parallel state.