Turkey says it would give four million lira ($700,000) for information leading to the arrest of exiled former strongman of Palestinian Fatah party, Mohammed Dahlan.
Ankara accuses Dahlan of involvement in the failed July 2016 coup attempt against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and recently of playing a role in the murder of Saudi dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi at Saudi Arabia’s consulate in Istanbul last year.
Turkish Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu told Turkey’s English-language Hurriyet Daily News newspaper on Friday that Dahlan would be placed on the most-wanted terrorists' list.
The 58-year-old became a fierce rival of his former ally in the Palestinian Fatah party, Mahmoud Abbas, before fleeing to the United Arab Emirates as an exile.
Turkey accuses Dahlan of being a mercenary for the UAE. It also charges the UAE with trying to replace Abbas with Dahlan.
Last month, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu accused the UAE of harboring a terrorist, saying “(Dahlan) fled to you because he is an agent of Israel.”
In an interview with a Saudi broadcaster, Dahlan responded forcefully, accusing Erdogan of supporting “terrorist groups” in Syria and “acting as if he were commander of the faithful.”
Dahlan was sentenced in absentia to three years in prison in 2016 by a Palestinian court for corruption, and ordered to repay $16 million, according to his lawyers.
Dahlan once led a coup against the elected Hamas government in Gaza in 2007. The plan was a massive failure and in a matter of days in the summer of 2007, Hamas routed out Dahlan's forces.
Source: Press TV
