A 40-year-old Turkish man arrested last month is being investigated on suspicion he may be a Turkish government assassin tasked with murdering opponents of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan living in Germany.
German federal prosecutors say they are examining the possibility that 40-year-old Turkish national Ali D. may have been plotting to carry out killings in Germany on the order of the Turkish government.
The facts of the case date back to September 13th when an employee at a hotel in Dusseldorf found a firearm in one of the rooms. After notifying the police, 100 officers in three task forces carried out an operation, arresting Ali D.
Officers found 200 rounds of ammunition and a list of names of four supporters of the movement of Erdogan-critic Fethullah Gülen who the Turkish president has accused of being behind the 2016 failed coup attempt, German newspaper Bild reports.
According to investigators, the 40-year-old’s mobile phone also contained documents believed to be from Turkish security services, leading to speculation that he may have connections to the organisation.
“There are sufficient factual indications that Ali D., on behalf of the Turkish secret service, covertly collected information about supporters of the so-called Gülen movement living in the Cologne area,” federal prosecutor’s office spokesman Markus Schmitt said.
The allegations against Ali D. are not the first time a suspected Turkish spy in Germany has been accused of acting as an assassin for the Erdogan regime.
In 2016, German federal police (BKA) arrested suspected spy Mehmet Fatih Sayan in Hamburg, on suspicion of allegedly travelling to Germany to assassinate two Kurdish officials living in Bremen, north-west Germany, and in Brussels, Belgium.
Turkish spies are thought to be pervasive in Germany, with a 2016 report claiming there are an estimated 6,000 operatives believed to be operating in Germany and neighbouring Austria.
In 2017, the Turkish-Islamic Union for Religious Affairs (DITIB), the largest Islamic association in Germany, admitted that some of its imams had actively spied on critics of Erdogan, particularly those who support Fethullah Gülen.