ANKARA, (Reuters) – NBA center Enes Kanter, an outspoken critic of Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, said yesterday his father had been acquitted of charges that he was a member of a terrorist group.
Mehmet Kanter, the father and a genetics professor in Turkey, was alleged to have supported U.S.-based cleric Fethullah Gulen who Turkey accuses of orchestrating a failed coup in 2016.
Enes Kanter, a 28-year-old center for the Boston Celtics in the NBA, himself was indicted in Turkey in 2018 on charges of belonging to an armed terrorist group, which he denies.
Turkey revoked Kanter’s passport in 2017 and he has since been unable to travel abroad.
Enes Kanter’s parents publicly disowned him through a Turkish publication back in 2016, soon after the coup attempt.
