News reports in certain Turkish media outlets claiming that Fethullah Gülen is to be deported from the US were dismissed by his attorney yesterday.

In a written statement issued on Friday, Gülen's attorney, Orhan Erdemli, said some circles in Turkey had started a smear campaign after his client's acquittal on charges of establishing an illegal organization to undermine the state's secular order was confirmed by Turkey's Supreme Court of Appeals.

Following the final acquittal, a few reports appeared in some newspapers on Friday claiming that Gülen was to be deported from the US, where he has lived for the last nine years. Erdemli dismissed the claims as baseless, saying "there is neither an indictment nor a prosecution case" against his client in the US. He stressed that Gülen, who has applied for permanent residency in the US, is not out of status and that his application is still pending and, as such, he has not been ordered to be leave the country, as the reports had claimed.

Gülen's attorney said similar smear campaigns had been started against his client in the past during court proceedings. He noted that all these reports and allegations were investigated by Turkish courts in detail for nine years and that the courts had found no evidence of wrongdoing. He said the prosecutor in Turkey failed to prove his case in a court of law and that the judges did not pay any attention to baseless claims and acquitted his client.

Erdemli expressed his disappointment that some media organizations were showing no respect to the court's acquittal decision. He said they were attacking his client's character with no regard to journalistic ethics. He added that the Turkish public knows where this smear campaign is emanating from and what the intention behind it is.

Erdemli also explained the pending case for permanent residency filed by his client in the US: "My client has applied for permanent residency through his attorney in the US and, after a denial of his application on one case by the US Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services, (USCIS), he took the USCIS to the court. The Immigration Court invited both parties to hear the case." Erdemli also said the names mentioned in the Turkish news reports, Patrick L. Meehan and Mary Catherine Fry, were not state prosecutors, but rather government attorneys representing USCIS.

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3.25 Copyright (C) 2007 Alain Georgette / Copyright (C) 2006 Frantisek Hliva. All rights reserved."