Authorities concerned about 6 FETO-affiliated schools in Denmark

STOCKHOLM

Six private schools in Denmark are run by the Fetullah Terrorist Organization (FETO), the group behind the 2016 defeated coup in Turkey, a Danish newspaper reported Saturday.

The Belingske newspaper said the schools are secretly administered by FETO's ringleader, Fetullah Gulen.

FETO-affiliated charter schools previously had been fined for accusations of bid-rigging in 2016, it said.

Children and Education Minister Pernille Rosenkrantz and her predecessor, Ellen Trane Norbyde, expressed concerns about the FETO-affiliated schools.

"We do not want others to infiltrate into the schools, regardless of their ideologies," said Norbyde. "The schools of Denmark should be independent."

The newspaper said members of the terror organization were operating under a foundation named Silm in Denmark.

In 2018, the Danish Broadcasting Corporation. the state-run media organ of the country, revealed that the students in FETO-affiliated high school, Kobenhavns Private Gymnasium, scored well below on the national graduation exam than results provided by the school showed.

Students had an average of 5.35 but grades given by the school were 7.12.

FETO and its US-based leader Fetullah Gulen orchestrated the defeated coup of July 15, 2016, which left 251 people dead and 2,734 injured.

Ankara also accuses FETO of being behind a long-running campaign to overthrow the state through the infiltration of Turkish institutions, particularly the military, police, and judiciary.

* Writing by Dilan Pamuk in Ankara