Furkan Foundation chair Alparslan Kuytul was released late Friday after the Adana 8th High Criminal Court ruled for his release at the latest hearing of his trial on Friday.
Kuytul was arrested in May 2022 for involvement in the abduction of businessman Koray Sarısaçlı in September 2021 allegedly by members of the Furkan Foundation, which was closed down by the Turkish government in 2018 in a decree. He is facing charges of the instigation of deprivation of liberty, extortion, bodily harm and torture, which he describes as politically motivated.
The preacher said during his defense statement on Friday that neither he nor his foundation had anything to do with the crimes enumerated in the indictment and that he is being tried due to his anti-government statements.
“We are a religious community. We have nothing to do with a criminal organization. A criminal organization would sell arms and heroin and kill people for money. If we had been a criminal organization, there would have been hundreds of incidents that we were involved in,” Kuytul said in his defense, adding that he was arrested to force him to toe the line and to stop criticizing the government.
The court ruled for the release of another defendant in the trial, while two other suspects would continue to remain in detention. There are a total of 13 defendants in the trial.
Kuytul was welcomed by hundreds of his supporters in Adana.