Turkey Arrests US Diplomat for Allegedly Selling a Fake Passport to a Syrian National

Turkish authorities arrested a U.S. diplomat in Turkey last month for allegedly selling a bogus passport to a Syrian national, according to Istanbul police.

Authorities identified the diplomat Wednesday by his initials, D.J.K. Officials also said they had video of the envoy handing the passport to a person they described as suspicious at Istanbul airport

The police said the diplomat, who works at the U.S. embassy in Beirut, remains in detention after they arrested him on November 11 with $10,000 in his possession. He was later charged with suspicion of selling the document, according to Turkey’s state-run Anadolu news agency.

The news agency reported the Syrian was detained and questioned after trying to fly to Germany with the use of the passport that was in D.J.K.’s name. The news outlet said the Syrian was released pending possible proceedings for falsifying documents.

The U.S. State Department did not immediately comment on the matter.

U.S.-Turkey relations have been strained in recent years, in part by 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 in this report also came from The Associated Press and Reuters.
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