Trial for US embassy staffer accused of espionage resumes in Turkey
- Metin Topuz is accused of contacts with police and a prosecutor suspected of having ties to US-based Muslim preacher Fethullah Gulen
A US embassy staffer denied espionage charges as his trial resumed in Istanbul on Wednesday – part of a growing rift between Washington and Ankara.
Metin Topuz, a Turkish citizen and liaison for the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), was arrested in 2017.
He was accused of contacts with police and a prosecutor suspected of having ties to US-based Muslim preacher Fethullah Gulen, who Ankara says ordered an attempted coup in 2016.
Topuz has denied all allegations against him and told the court on Monday that all his contacts were “part of my job”, an AFP reporter said.
“I am not a decision maker. I have done what I was ordered to do” by my boss at the DEA, he said.
His defence lawyer presented a list of his phone calls with police, saying they were entirely work-related.