With his baseball cap and bicycle, Mehmet Karabörk appears like your average person as he rides to a betting shop in Wetzlar. Yet, this middle-aged man, known as "Muhammed Bayram" to his new friends in Germany, is one of the most wanted suspects back in his home country Türkiye.

Karabörk joined the growing list of members of the Gülenist Terror Group (FETÖ) sighted in European countries as part of an investigation by the Sabah newspaper that has managed to track down FETÖ suspects in Germany and Sweden, where they are hiding in plain sight.

The former police chief has three outstanding arrest warrants issued by two separate courts in Türkiye on charges of membership in a terrorist group, obtaining confidential documents regarding state security and threat.

He played a role in a string of plots by FETÖ that involved holding sham trials to imprison its opponents. Yet, in Germany, which shied from recognizing FETÖ as a terrorist group, he is apparently living the high life though in hiding. Karabörk is an investor in several construction businesses and spends a lot, though the source of his income is not known, according to Sabah's investigation. Most nights, however, he visits a betting shop in Wetzlar.

Karabörk, who once served as a high-ranking officer in the counterterrorism department of the Istanbul police, was behind several investigations that were manipulated by FETÖ, which, in the past, boasted a wide network of infiltrators in law enforcement. Most notoriously, he was the police chief in charge of the Ergenekon operations, in collaboration with three prosecutors who are also linked to FETÖ and are now on the run like Karabörk. Ergenekon was the name of a widespread investigation conducted by FETÖ-linked prosecutors and police chiefs. These figures concocted a terrorist organization that they named Ergenekon and used it to imprison prominent people, from journalists to military officers the terrorist group deemed obstacles to its infiltration into the army, law enforcement and other institutions.

He was arrested in 2016 on charges of FETÖ membership a few days after the terrorist group tried to seize power in the July 15 coup attempt. Yet, he agreed to be a "secret witness" or collaborator in investigations against the terrorist group. After testifying against the terrorist group – which later was determined to be a false testimony – he was released under house arrest in 2017. Later, he managed to flee Türkiye. He was reported to have first fled to the United States by Turkish media outlets. He was later reported to be in Germany and apparently was granted political asylum by the country in 2019. His asylum expired last October but Karabörk still lives in Wetzlar, in an apartment building where other fugitive asylum-seekers reside, in the company of his wife Vahide Karabörk, a lawyer who was expelled from her job in Türkiye for her links to the terrorist group.

Karabörk filed for divorce from his wife and they live in separate houses, however, it was apparently a ploy to throw people off and obtain financial assistance granted to asylum-seekers by the German government.

He also still plays an active role in the terrorist group, as one of the "administrators" for FETÖ’s cells, using the name Mehmet Sait Mutlu. Karabörk has a reputation as "a loyal name" in the terrorist group. His name was found coded as "loyalist" in the terrorist group’s list of infiltrators in the law enforcement discovered in earlier operations against FETÖ. A graduate of the prestigious Police Academy, he served in the counterterrorism units of the Turkish National Police for decades. FETÖ leader Fetullah Gülen had personally given his insignia when he was promoted to the rank of police chief, a tradition in the terrorist group in which the leader "bestows" insignia to infiltrators in law enforcement and the army.

His name came up in a number of investigations and he is believed to lead a team of conspirators working for FETÖ, particularly in the Ergenekon investigation. He contributed to some 27 indictments prepared against Ergenekon defendants by prosecutors associated with FETÖ. The indictments were notorious for disclosing the addresses of people in critical duties and identities of staff of the National Intelligence Organization (MIT), which are kept secret. He was also involved in the so-called "MIT trucks" case where the terrorist group conspired to uncover secret MIT operations. Karabörk was behind illegal wiretappings of MIT members in the case. In January 2014, prosecutors affiliated with FETÖ stopped a convoy of trucks belonging to the MIT on their way to Syria, despite government orders to let them pass. The incident caused an uproar and an investigation found that the officers were linked to FETÖ, which long controlled a secret network of military infiltrators. While serving as counterterrorism chief of police in the southeastern province of Şırnak, Karabörk was also behind an investigation associating public officials with the PKK terrorist group based on false information, in an effort by FETÖ to get rid of those officials and replace them with people close to the terrorist group.