On October 8, the main prosecutor’s office in Istanbul detained four Russian citizens, as well as a citizen of Ukraine and a citizen of Uzbekistan, who are accused of preparing an armed attack on some Chechen oppositionists, the Turkish newspaper Hurriyet reported.

The detainees are accused of political and military espionage, for which Turkey provides for 15 to 20 years in prison. The court arrested the accused. They are imprisoned in Maltepe in Istanbul province.

The newspaper Hurriyet published the names of the detainees: these are Russian citizens Abdula Abdulaev, Ravshan Akhmedov, Bislan Rasaev and Aslanbek Abdulmuslimov, as well as a citizen of Ukraine Igor Efrim and a citizen of Uzbekistan Amir Yusupov.

On October 8, CNN Turk reported that the police and the Turkish National Intelligence Organization have detained suspected political and military espionage. They were  suspected of preparing armed attacks in Istanbul and Antalya. Passports of Russian citizens were found on the detainees, but it was not clear whether the documents were real.https://platform.twitter.com/embed/index.html?dnt=false&embedId=twitter-widget-0&frame=false&hideCard=false&hideThread=true&id=1446410035962073088&lang=ru&theme=light&width=550px

Press Secretary of the Russian President Dmitry Peskov said on October 11 that he had no information about what had happened. “If these are really Russian citizens, probably we have either already received it through diplomatic channels or will receive some information. But we do not know anything about this, ” he said .

(C)UNIAN 2021