

Police car in Bucharest, Romania. Photo: Wikimedia/TwoWings

A Romanian judge on Wednesday rejected a Turkish request for the country to extradite a 24-year-old teacher arrested by police and sought by the authorities in Ankara.

Busra Zeynep Zen, an English teacher affiliated to the movement of the exiled Turkish cleric Fethullah Gulen, appeared before the appeal court judge soon after her detention.

“I felt and I still feel safe in Romania, that’s why I’m very grateful to Romanian authorities for refusing to send me back to Turkey,” said a visibly emotional Sen in a voice message remitted to BIRN after finding out the court verdict.

She denied that she had ever supported terrorism and accused the authorities in her home country of wanting her extradited in order to “torture her and put her in jail”.

The woman has a legal right to be in Romania and teaches at the International Computer High School in Bucharest, which is run by supporters of the exiled cleric.

Tens of thousands of people have been sacked from their jobs and imprisoned in Turkey over their connections with the movement inspired by the US-based Sufi cleric since the failed 2016 military coup against Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Erdogan has blamed Gulen for the coup – which he has denied – and accuses him of leading a terrorist organisation.

Turkish authorities have actively pursued members of the movement abroad, many of whom run schools and welfare projects in dozens of countries all over the world.

This pursuit has been particularly intense in the Balkan region. In Moldova, at Ankara’s request, the local authorities in March last year briefly detained the father of the teacher arrested in Romania, Turgay Sen.

Sen was director of a Gulen-linked network of school in Moldova. He ended up fleeing to Kosovo, where he has since become a citizen. Meanwhile, several alleged Gulenists have been sent back from Kosovo to Turkey in recent years.

Gulen supporters and human rights activists accuse Erdogan of conducting an unprecedented witch-hunt against them. Turkey is also charged with exerting pressure on foreign governments to extradite alleged Gulenists.