US-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen dead: Turkish TV

A handout picture released by Zaman Daily shows exiled Turkish Muslim preacher Fethullah Gulen at his residence on September 24, 2013 in Saylorsburg, Pennsylvania. (AFP)
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ISTANBUL: Turkish public television reported Monday that US-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen, who Ankara says masterminded a failed 2016 coup, has died.
Citing posts on X and social media by groups close to Gulen, they said the 83-year-old died in hospital overnight.
Gulen, who led a movement called Hizmet, was accused by Turkiye of leading a “terrorist” group and being the brains behind an abortive coup to topple strongman Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s governmnt in 2016 — accusations he had consistently denied.
Gulen had lived in Pennsylvania since 1999. He was stripped of his Turkish nationality in 2017.