A Turkish prosecutor has indicted Mustafa Kamalak, the former chairman of the Islamist opposition Felicity Party (SP), on allegations of supporting the faith-based Gülen movement, demanding a prison sentence of up to nine-and-a-half years, the OdaTV news website reported on Thursday.
Turkey declared the Gülen movement a “terrorist” organization after a 2016 failed coup that the government of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan accuses the movement of masterminding, although it strongly denies any involvement.
Kamalak was elected chairman of the SP after the death of Necmettin Erbakan, the father of Turkey’s Islamist movement, in 2011.
He later left the position to Temel Karamollaoğlu, the incumbent chair of the party.
According to the report the indictment was drafted after a complaint was filed with the prosecutor in 2017.
Kamalak’s 2015 remarks criticizing the government seizure of Koza-İpek Holding, which was accused of being affiliated with the Gülen movement, were cited as evidence in the indictment, the report said.