FETO smear campaign in South Africa foiled

By Sena Guler

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia

Senior members of the Fetullah Terrorist Organization (FETO) in South Africa, which organized the defeated coup attempt on July 15, 2016, have attempted to frame a Turkish businessman.

According to a statement by the Independent Industrialists and Businessmen Association’s (MUSIAD) South Africa branch, FETO members’ smear campaign in the country’s press and social media targeting Turkish businesspeople in the country was foiled.

FETO members claimed that the head of MUSIAD Ebubekir Salim illegally took money abroad and cheated on the sale of a mining company. A South African court ordered the arrest of Salim and froze his company accounts.

Later, Salim filed an appeal over incomplete and false statements. All the rulings were reversed.

Speaking to Anadolu Agency, Turkish Ambassador to South Africa Elif Comoglu Ulgen said there are many senior FETO members in the country.

She described the issue as a “typical FETO campaign”, adding that the group members try to use the courts by providing fake documents and statements.

Ulgen added that she believes the operations launched by the Turkish intelligence service MIT in Kosovo and in Gabon triggerred such campaigns in South Africa.

“We don’t take these campaigns serious, they cannot suppress us with these,” she said.

In early April, Turkish intelligence officers brought three senior FETO members to Turkey following an anti-terror operation against the group in Gabon, in the central western African country.

In March, in cooperation with Kosovo’s intelligence agency, Turkey’s MIT arrested six men who were said to be in charge of getting FETO members out of Turkey and into Europe and the U.S. alongside their activities in the Balkans.

FETO and its U.S.-based leader Fetullah Gulen orchestrated the July 15, 2016 defeated coup in Turkey, which left 250 people martyred and nearly 2,200 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.