Turkish court arrests exhibition organizer over killing of Russian ambassador Karlov

ANKARA

A court has arrested the organizer of a photograph exhibition where a gunman shot dead Russian Ambassador Andrey Karlov in Ankara in December 2016, Turkey’s state-run Anadolu Agency has reported.

Mustafa Timur Özkan was arrested on charges of deliberate participation in a murder.

Özkan, the organizer of an exhibition of Russian landscape photographs at the gallery in Ankara’s upscale Çankaya district, was initially detained in January before being released.

Karlov was on Dec. 19, 2016 shot dead by off-duty Turkish policeman Mevlüt Mert Altıntaş, 22, while inaugurating the photo exhibition.

Turkish officials have said the murder was a plot carried out by the network U.S.-based Fethullah Gülen, accused of masterminding last year’s failed coup attempt.

The authorities have arrested five suspects in connection with the plot, including television producer Hayreddin Aydınbaş, alleging that they have links with the Gülen network.