https://ift.tt/2iksc1s authorities arrested a U.S. diplomat in Turkey last month for allegedly handing his passport to a Syrian national, Istanbul police said Wednesday. However, the U.S. State Department later said that the person in custody was not a diplomat.
The authorities identified the American on Wednesday by his initials, D.J.K. Officials also said they had video of him exchanging clothes and handing the passport to the Syrian national, identified as R.S., whom they described as suspicious at Istanbul Airport.
“We are aware of the detention of a U.S. citizen in Turkey. The individual is not a U.S. diplomat. We are providing appropriate consular services,” a State Department official said, offering no further details.
The police said the American, who worked at the U.S. Embassy in Beirut, has remained in detention since his November 11 arrest, in which $10,000 was found in his possession. He was later charged with suspicion of selling the document, according to Turkey’s state-run Anadolu news agency.
The Syrian was detained and questioned after trying to fly to Germany using the passport that was in D.J.K.’s name, the news agency reported, adding that the Syrian was released pending possible proceedings for falsifying documents.
U.S.-Turkey relations have been strained in recent years, in part because of Ankara’s detention of U.S. diplomatic staff members accused of being associated with a network Turkey blames for a failed coup in 2016.
Some information for this report came from The Associated Press and Reuters.
Author webdesk@voanews.com (VOA News)
Source : VOA