Turkiye police capture wife of leading figure in Russia envoy assassination

Police in Turkiye have captured and detained the wife of a key individual involved in the 2016 assassination of Russia’s ambassador to Turkiye.

According to a police announcement today, cited by Turkish media outlets, the suspect – identified as A.S. – was previously investigated for potential involvement in the killing of Russian ambassador, Andrei Karlov, during an exhibition at an art gallery in the capital, Ankara, in December 2016.

She was reportedly released on house arrest during the course of the early investigation, before being sentenced to nine years in prison by the court. She disappeared, however, and according to the police statement, was found hiding in Istanbul’s Beylikduzu district and captured during an operation on Sunday.

Her husband, identified as S.S., is accused of having had close ties – like a “brother” – to the assassin Mevlut Mert Altıntas. Both men were reportedly Gulenists, members of the movement led by US-based Turkish cleric, Fethullah Gulen, whom Turkish authorities accuse of orchestrating the failed coup attempt of July 2016 and of having infiltrated numerous political, judiciary, security, military and educational institutions throughout the country.

Altıntas was reportedly a member of a Gulenist cell within Turkish police and was off-duty as a policeman at the time he assassinated Karlov, after which he was killed in a shootout with police.

In a ruling by a top court in June, it upheld two life sentences for S.S. – who was working at Turkiye’s telecom regulation watchdog – over his alleged role in the murder, with investigators saying he was the leading figure and that he relayed the order of assassination to Altıntas.

The assassination, almost seven years ago, is said to have been a strategic attempt by Gulen’s movement to pave the way for “a war between countries”, especially as it came at a time when Turkiye and Russia had recently repaired ties that had been strained due to the Turkish military’s downing of a Russian jet near its airspace, the year before.

Turkiye police arrest Gulen’s niece