Celtics center Enes Kanter says father released from Turkish prison: 'I could cry'
The father of Enes Kanter — an outspoken critic of Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan — was acquitted of terrorism charges, the Boston Celtics player said on Friday.
The Guardian reported that charges against Dr. Mehmet Kanter were dropped on Thursday by a court in north-western Tekirdağ province. There was no immediate statement from the court on why he had been cleared.
“Wow! I could cry … Today I found out that 7 years after arresting my dad, taking him through a Kangaroo court and accusing him of being a criminal just because he is my dad, my dad has been released,” Enes Kanter tweeted.
The elder Kanter began a 15-year prison sentence in 2018 after being found guilty of links to the Pennsylvania-based cleric Fethullah Gülen, whom Turkey blames for a failed 2016 coup. Gülen and members of his religious movement — Erdoğan’s former allies — have been designated as terrorists in Turkey since the putsch attempt, charges that Gülen has denied.
The 28-year-old Boston Celtic grew close to the cleric after moving to the U.S. a decade ago, and remains one of his rare full-throated supporters.
Kanter has used his huge platform at the NBA to criticize Turkey’s increasingly authoritarian direction since 2013.