ANKARA: Turkish authorities have issued a warrant for the arrest of former soccer star and legislator Hakan Sukur over his links to a US-based Muslim cleric, accused by Turkey of masterminding last month’s failed coup, media reports said on Friday.

Meanwhile, Turkey’s foreign minister told reporters that 32 Turkish diplomats who were called back to Turkey as part of an investigation into the coup attempt had failed to return.The state-run Anadolu Agency said an arrest warrant was issued for Sukur late on Thursday, accusing him of “membership in an armed terror organisation.” His father Selmet Sukur was detained in the northwestern province of Sakarya on Friday, hours after a warrant was also issued against him, the agency reported. A court has also ordered that both men’s assets in Turkey be seized, Anadolu said.

Sukur, who reportedly left Turkey last year, played for Inter Milan and Galatasaray and was Turkey’s top goal-scorer in international competitions. He has made no secret of his affiliation to Gulen, and resigned from the ruling party in 2013 following a government rift with the movement.

Published in Dawn, August 13th, 2016