Turkish police have arrested a suspect, supposedly linked to US-based Islamic preacher Fethullah Gülen's network, on charges of involvement in the assassination of Russian Ambassador in Ankara Andrei Karlov, local media reported on Thursday.
On December 19, 2016, Karlov was shot by an off-duty Turkish police officer, Mevlüt Mert Altıntaş, at the opening of an art gallery exhibition "Russia from Kaliningrad to Kamchatka through the eyes of a traveller" in Ankara. The attacker was killed at the scene by the police. Though the investigation is still ongoing, the Turkish side has repeatedly voiced suspicions that the Gülen network, considered by Ankara to be a terrorist organisation and accused by the authorities of masterminding the 2016 failed coup attempt in Turkey, is linked to the attack.
According to pro-government Sabah daily, citing the country’s authorities, the new suspect, already jailed over membership of the Gülen network, was re-arrested on charges of playing "a key role" in the ambassador’s assassination.
The newspaper also noted that the suspect, identified as V.K.A., had been a user of the ByLock encrypted messenger in order to supposedly communicate with members of the movement, and had been dismissed from his job in the public sector after the coup attempt.
As of today, six people have been detained on suspicion of complicity in the murder.
