QuickTake Q&A: Turkey Must Take These Steps to Extradite Cleric

Turkish authorities say they have formally asked the U.S. to hand over Fethullah Gulen, an Islamic cleric living in Pennsylvania whom President Recep Tayyip Erdogan accuses of inspiring a July 15 coup attempt. For the U.S. to approve an extradition request, it must contain credible evidence of crimes and meet specific standards. Those are contained in a treaty signed by the U.S. and Turkey in 1979.

Gulen, 75, won a following in Turkey in the 1970s and 1980s while employed as a state-authorized imam, or mosque preacher. He helped establish dormitories for needy students that evolved into a global network of schools that form a key part of his organization, called Hizmet, or “the service." A onetime ally of Erdogan, Gulen left Turkey in 1999 after the broadcast of tapes that showed him telling followers to infiltrate government institutions. Though acquitted of charges that he formed a terrorist group to undermine the secular state, he hasn’t set foot in his homeland this millennium and is thought to be in poor health. He lives in a compound in Pennsylvania’s Pocono Mountains.