Twenty-eight suspects, including Gülenist Terror Group (FETÖ)'s leader Fetullah Gülen, were indicted Friday in the 2016 assassination of Russian envoy Andrey Karlov in Ankara.
Karlov was killed on Dec. 19, 2016 by Mevlüt Mert Altıntaş, an off-duty police officer with links to FETÖ, in an art gallery in the capital Ankara. Prosecutors indicted 28 people in the murder and apart from Gülen, Şerif Ali Tekalan and Emre Uslu are prominent figures from FETÖ included in the indictment.
Prosecutors say FETÖ sought to derail Turkish-Russian relations with the murder. The assassination was at a time of thaw between strained Turkish and Russian relations. Since the murder, Ankara and Moscow gradually made progress in rebuilding their ties that were disrupted by the 2015 downing of a Russian fighter jet over the Syrian border by the Turkish military.
Altıntaş was killed in a shootout with police in the gallery after the assassination.
