Court rejects request for extradition of Turkish soldiers who fled to Greece

An appeals court in Athens on Tuesday turned down a request for the extradition of three Turkish soldiers who fled to Greece and received political asylum following last year's attempted military coup in Turkey. The three are part of a group of eight Turkish soldiers who received asylum. The date for the proceedings regarding the five other soldiers has yet to be set. The prosecutor in Athens claimed that the evidence presented by the Turkish government was not sufficient for extradition. According to the statistics of the Greek immigration authorities, a total of 236 Turkish citizens have requested asylum since the July 2016 attempted putsch.
Meanwhile, Turkey's police on Wednesday launched a large-scale operation to arrest suspected opponents of the regime. More than 800 people suspected of belonging to the movement of exiled opposition leader Fethullah Gulen, which Turkey has designated as a terrorist organization, were taken into custody.