Turkish prosecutors are seeking an international arrest warrant for New York Knicks player Enes Kanter, accusing him of membership of a terror organization.

The pro-government Daily Sabah newspaper says the Istanbul chief prosecutor’s office had also prepared an extradition request for the NBA player. Officials at the prosecutor’s office could not be reached for comment.

Sabah says prosecutors are seeking an Interpol “Red Notice” citing Kanter’s ties to the US-based Turkish cleric Fethullah Gulen, who is blamed for a failed coup in 2016, and accusing him of providing financial support to his group.

Earlier this month, Kanter refused to travel to London for a regular-season NBA game, saying he feared he could be assassinated for his opposition to the Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

“Sadly, I’m not going because of that freaking lunatic, the Turkish president,” Kanter said at the time. “It’s pretty sad that all the stuff affects my career and basketball, because I want to be out there and help my team win. But just because of the one lunatic guy, one maniac, one dictator, I can’t even go out there and do my job. It’s pretty sad.”

Kanter has been a vocal critic of Erdoğan for years, once referring to him as “the Hitler of our century”. Kanter’s father, Mehmet, was indicted last year and charged with “membership in a terror group.” The former professor lost his job after the failed military coup even though he publicly disavowed his son and his beliefs.

“People often ask me why I continue to speak out if it’s hurting my family,” Kanter wrote in a column for Time magazine last year. “But that’s exactly why I speak out. The people Erdogan is targeting are my family, my friends, my neighbors, my classmates. I need to speak out, or my country will suffer in silence.”