The Sabah newspaper managed to track down another member of the Gülenist Terror Group (FETÖ) in Sweden as the Nordic country continues dragging its feet in the extradition of terror suspects wanted by Türkiye. Harun Tokak, who is in the upper echelons of the terrorist group, was spotted in Malmö recently.

Tokak is in the "red category" of the Interior Ministry’s most wanted list, a notoriety he shares with the group’s leader Fetullah Gülen. Türkiye is offering $531,000 (TL 10 million) for people helping in his capture, and sought Interpol assistance to issue an international arrest warrant for Tokak. Separately, it asked Sweden to extradite Tokak whose exact whereabouts have been unknown. Following the extradition request, Tokak, who was residing in Stockholm, moved to Malmö, some 600 kilometers (372.82 miles) from the Swedish capital. Harun Tokak moved to his current address with his wife in March 2022 and rarely leaves home, except for shopping.

The 67-year-old man serves in an "advisory council" of FETÖ, comprised of people closest to Gülen and has long been the Israel "imam" for the terrorist group, a name given to senior figures of the terrorist group in charge of other members and FETÖ activities in countries.

Tokak was a high-profile name in FETÖ as chair of an association closed due to its links to the terrorist group, after Türkiye branded the group a national security threat, following its attempts to topple the government in 2013. Tokak moved to Jerusalem where he worked as the Middle East coordinator for another association affiliated with FETÖ, while in reality, he took up the post of "imam." When he was notified by fellow FETÖ members that Türkiye was preparing an arrest warrant for him, Tokak left Jerusalem in 2015 for Denmark.

Turkish courts have sought his arrest in the main trial on FETÖ’s activities and ordered the seizure of his assets. The trial seeks heavy prison sentences for FETÖ members like Tokak on charges of attempting to overthrow the constitutional order, which carries life imprisonment. Türkiye has filed an extradition request to Sweden for Tokak and six other members of the terrorist group, but Sweden rejected requests for all suspects.

He is among the potential successors to 81-year-old Fetullah Gülen who is known to have health problems. He met Gülen in 1973 while the latter was working as a preacher in the western Turkish province of Balıkesir. For years, he worked as a teacher in Türkiye while secretly serving as provincial "imam" for the terrorist group. In the 2000s, he led an association linked to FETÖ, which was behind the much-criticized "interfaith dialogue" project of the terrorist group. His name came up in a plot against a prosecutor who had launched an investigation into Gülen on charges of founding a terrorist group in 2002. Details of a sex tape allegedly involving prosecutor Nuh Mete Yüksel emerged in a Turkish newspaper and Tokak was accused of providing the tape. The sex tape earned Yüksel a suspension while the lawsuit against Gülen was dropped later. The terrorist group is known for its widespread illegal wiretapping activities targeting prominent figures, from politicians to journalists. It is accused of wiretapping phone conversations of its targets through its infiltrators in law enforcement, with the purpose of blackmail.

Tokak’s residence in Israel was questioned at the time when Türkiye’s relations with that country soured and Turkish citizens visiting Jerusalem faced deportations.

The indictment in his trial in Türkiye portrays Tokak as the man with key information on FETÖ’s secret activities and in direct touch with Gülen.

Tokak is the 10th key FETÖ figure tracked down by Sabah in Germany and Sweden since last year as Ankara complains European countries of harboring terror suspects. Earlier, Cevheri Güven, Ercan Karakoyun, Celal Fındık, Murat Çetiner and Mehmet Karabörk were found residing in Germany while Bülent Keneş, Abdullah Bozkurt, Levent Kenez and Mustafa Kemal Şirin were spotted in Sweden. They either serve for FETÖ propaganda against Türkiye or were involved in several FETÖ plots in Türkiye in past years.

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said earlier that the extradition of terrorists is a must for Sweden if it wants the right to join NATO. Erdoğan last month lambasted the Nordic country and other European nations for continuing to tolerate the presence of terrorists. Türkiye told Sweden that Parliament cannot ratify Sweden’s NATO membership if they do not extradite the terrorists they have, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said, referring to Sweden and Finland’s commitment last June as part of an agreement to take a firmer stance against terrorism to join the alliance. "First of all, they need to extradite nearly 130 terrorists for their bids to pass our Parliament, (but) unfortunately, they are yet to fulfill this," Erdoğan explained as he addressed a youth meeting in the southwestern Muğla province.

Citing a joint press conference he held last November with Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson, Erdoğan said he told Sweden to extradite fugitive suspect Bülent Keneş to Türkiye, stressing the importance of the issue. FETÖ was behind a 2016 coup attempt that killed 251 people in Türkiye. "Interestingly, their court rejected the deportation of Bülent Keneş to us," Erdoğan noted, referring to the latest refusal of extradition requests.