Mustafa Doğan İnal, the personal lawyer of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, criticized a police crackdown on a deadly al-Qaeda group back in 2007 in an opinion piece he wrote for a jihadist publication, Nordic Monitor has learned.
İnal’s attempt to discredit the operation came after the police, acting under the orders of a public prosecutor, rounded up 50 suspects and executed search and seizure warrants at their offices and residences as part of crackdown on al-Qaeda cells in five provinces. He claimed there was no evidence of terrorism and that the case was bogus.
The detentions on January 29, 2007 came after a year and a half of surveillance of the suspects, some of whom were known jihadists with connections to al-Qaeda leadership, and others who had traveled to Afghanistan for training.
Source: Nordic Monitor