Fethullah Gulen
Fethullah GulenReuters

Turkish police on Sunday detained a brother of U.S.-based preacher Fethullah Gulen, who is accused of masterminding the failed July coup aimed at ousting President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, AFP reported.

Kutbettin Gulen was detained by police acting on a tip-off at the home of a relative in the Gaziemir district of the western Izmir province, the state-run Anadolu news agency said.

He is the first of Gulen's siblings to be detained after the coup bid and is accused of "membership of an armed terror group", according to AFP.

Kutbettin Gulen is currently being questioned by anti-terror police. Anadolu said books belonging to Fethullah Gulen himself were confiscated in the police raid.

Gulen leads from exile a popular movement called Hizmet and split from Erdogan over a corruption scandal in 2013. Erdogan has long accused him of running a parallel state from abroad.

Gulen is accused by Turkey of orchestrating the July 15 coup plot but denies the claims. In fact, he has hinted that the uprising by members of the country’s military could have been “staged” by the government.

According to previous Turkish media reports, Gulen has three living brothers, Mesih, Salih and Kutbettin, as well as two who are dead, Seyfullah and Hasbi. He also has two sisters, Nurhayat and Fazilet. Their current whereabouts are not known.

Turkey has asked U.S. authorities to extradite Gulen to face justice back home and expressed impatience with the slowness of the procedure.

But Washington has insisted the full judicial process should be observed.

(Arutz Sheva’s North American desk is keeping you updated until the start of Rosh Hashanah in New York. The time posted automatically on all Arutz Sheva articles, however, is Israeli time.)