U.S. Judge Tosses Suit Against Turkish Imam Fethullah Gülen
A U.S. judge has dismissed a lawsuit brought on behalf of the Turkish government against an Islamic preacher in Pennsylvania, saying the case didn’t belong in U.S. courts.
The civil lawsuit was filed last December in Scranton, Pa., federal court by three Turkish citizens who alleged that Turkish imam Fethullah Gülen directed his religious followers to carry out human rights abuses against the plaintiffs in Turkey, including illegal imprisonment.
The plaintiffs, who were members of a rival religious movement in Turkey, alleged that Mr. Gülen used coded language in a video speech to encourage his followers to “misuse the Turkish law enforcement system” against the rival group. Mr. Gülen has denied the allegations.
U.S. District Judge Robert Mariani on Wednesday said the U.S. didn’t have jurisdiction in this case, citing a “circumstantial and tenuous” connection between Mr. Gülen’s conduct in the U.S. and the alleged violation of the plaintiffs’ rights in Turkey. Their claims “do not touch and concern the United States in any meaningful manner,” the judge wrote.
Mr. Gülen, who has been a legal U.S. resident since 1998, is living in self-imposed exile in Pennsylvania. An influential critic of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Mr. Gülen is wanted in Turkey for allegedly trying to overthrow the government, after his backers in 2013 accused Mr. Erdogan’s allies of corruption. He has denied the accusations.
At a press conference announcing the lawsuit against Mr. Gülen last year, lawyers for the plaintiffs said they had been “tasked by the Turkish government to investigate the activities of Fethullah Gülen outside of Turkey.”
Michael Miller, a partner at Steptoe & Johnson LLP representing Mr. Gülen, on Wednesday called the case a “politically motivated attack leveled...against Mr. Gülen, for doing nothing more than publicly accusing the Erdogan administration of being corrupt and authoritarian.”
Robert Amsterdam, a lawyer for the plaintiffs and for the Turkish government, published a statement on his website after the ruling: “Neither the president of Turkey nor the Turkish government has the time for personal vendettas.”
Mr. Amsterdam added that the judge dismissed the case on procedural grounds, “but the fact remains that the Court has not in any way found [Mr. Gülen and his co-conspirators] innocent of these grievous human rights abuses.”
Judge Mariani also said the plaintiffs failed to adequately show how Mr. Gülen in his video speech specifically instructed his followers to persecute them. Plaintiffs said Mr. Gülen used the term “Tahsiye” to refer to the rival religious movement, which was intended to incite his supporters to take action.
The link between Mr. Gülen’s speech and the acts against the plaintiffs is “speculative,” the judge said.
The lawsuit was part of a broader effort by the Turkish government to pursue Mr. Gülen and his supporters throughout the U.S.
Last month, lawyers for the Turkish government filed a complaint with Texas officials that accused a Houston-based charter school system of having ties to Mr. Gülen. They also accused the schools of illegally hiring Turkish teachers over qualified American teachers and favoring Turkish contractors.
The school system called the complaint “a witch hunt,” and said the Turkish government was targeting Turkish-Americans who opposed Mr. Erdogan. It said the schools followed all state and federal rules.
A similar complaint was filed in February with California authorities against a charter school system in the state founded by Turkish expatriates.
http://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-judge-tosses-suit-against-reclusive-muslim-cleric-1467291037
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