An off-duty Turkish police officer has been remanded in custody over alleged plotting of Russian Ambassador Andrey Karlov's assassination in December 2016.
The former police officer Ramazan Yücel, who is also suspected of having links to U.S.-based Islamic preacher Fethullah Gülen's network, referred to as the Fethullahist Terrorist Organization (FETÖ) by Ankara and accused of being behind the 2016 coup attempt in the country, was taken into custody on charges of participating in plotting the assassination, in line with a criminal court's ruling.
The investigation into the assassination is still ongoing. So far, Turkish authorities have detained four people, two police officers, including Yücel, and the Guru Media Broadcast Group Chairman Hayreddin Aydınbaş.
Karlov was shot by a Syrian jihadist-linked off-duty Turkish police officer Mevlüt Mert Altintas at the opening of an art gallery exhibition in Ankara. Three people were injured in the shooting, while the gunman was killed at the scene by the police. The Russian Foreign Ministry said it considered the attack a terrorist act.
