Two Turkish commandos who sought asylum in Greece over their alleged involvement in the failed coup against President Recept Tayyip Erdogan in July 2016 have allegedly gone missing from police custody.
Their lawyer Stavroula Tomara claimed towards British newspaper The Times, that Helit Ctin and Fatih Arik may already be in the hands of Turkey. The lawyer also claimed that the two may have been exchanged with the two Greek soldiers who were released from Turkish custody on August 14.
Halit Cetin and Fatih Arik fled to Greece months after their unit, the SAT special operations force, led the failed Turkish coup in July 2016, the times notes. The men, dubbed “public enemy No 1” by the Turkish government, claimed political asylum and were placed in detention for 18 months for illegal entry.
Cetin and Arik had illegally entered into Greece via the Evros river on 15. February 2017.
According to Stavroula Tomara, their lawyer, the two men went missing form Greek custody on August 20 the day that they were supposed to be released.
“I went to take them but they were gone, I doubt the two commandos are still in Greece. They either sent them to a third country or they deported them to Turkey,” Tomara claimed adding “Nobody has the right to take them to a secret place, they had to be set free.”
Speaking to thetimes, Greek police representative Theodoros Chronopoulos said that the two were released form custody and were taken to a secret place following their request for protection.” He did not comment to Tomara’s claims.
