ISTANBUL: Turkish police questioned two local staffers from a US consulate in Turkey Wednesday over a Halloween party video accused of “denigrating religious values,” news agency DHA reported.
The pair, who work at the consulate in the southern city of Adana, were taken in for questioning and later released, the local prosecutor told DHA.
It followed a video, which spread online, showing a women mocking “Zamzam” water, which is considered holy because it is drawn from a well in Makkah, Saudi Arabia.
A man, dressed as a pious Muslim, advises her to drink a cocktail.
The prosecutor said those detained were two employees from the consulate aged 30 and 38.
A number of issues have strained relations between Ankara and Washington, including Turkey’s offensive last month against Kurdish militants in Syria, who were a close ally of the US against the Daesh group.
There was also a row over the arrest of several Turks working for US diplomatic outposts following the attempted coup of 2016.
One employee, Metin Topuz from the Istanbul consulate, is still in jail pending his trial on espionage charges.
In January, a staffer at the Adana consulate, Hamza Ulucay, was freed after nearly two years in pre-trial detention over alleged links to the Gulenist movement that Turkey blames for the attempted coup.
US consular staff in Turkey quizzed over video that ‘mocked Islam’
US consular staff in Turkey quizzed over video that ‘mocked Islam’
- The video, which spread online, showed a women mocking “Zamzam” water
- The prosecutor said those detained were two employees from the consulate aged 30 and 38
Ex-prince Andrew dogged again by Epstein scandal
- Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, as the ex-prince he is now known, has long been dogged by his links to Epstein
- The 65-year-old Briton has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing
LONDON: Britain’s former prince Andrew was again engulfed Saturday by the Epstein scandal, after newly released files included photographs of him kneeling on all fours over a woman lying on the floor.
The images were among millions of new documents disclosed Friday by the US Justice Department from the Jeffrey Epstein files, which also featured the late sex offender proposing in 2010 that the then-prince meet a Russian woman.
That was two years after the disgraced US financier had pleaded guilty in Florida to soliciting a minor for prostitution.
Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, as the ex-prince he is now known, has long been dogged by his links to Epstein, who died in 2019 by suicide in jail as he awaited trial for sex crimes against minors.
The 65-year-old Briton has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing, but stepped back from royal duties that year over their links.
Then last October, King Charles III stripped him of all his royal titles and honors after the late Epstein accuser Virginia Giuffre recounted in a posthumous memoir shocking claims against the disgraced royal.
Giuffre, a US and Australian citizen who took her own life last year, has alleged she was trafficked to have sex with Andrew three times, including twice when she was 17.
After she launched a lawsuit against him, he paid her a multi-million-pound settlement in 2022 without making any admission of guilt.
- ‘Beautiful, trustworthy’ -
The latest disclosures in Washington come with Andrew reportedly set to leave his 30-room mansion on the royal estate at Windsor imminently after Charles ousted him, and are likely to fuel further criticism.
He will also face fresh pressure to testify in the US over what he knew about Epstein’s conduct.
One of the undated pictures of Andrew and the unidentified female, both of them clothed, appears to show the former duke touching her abdomen. In another he stares, crouching over her, directly into the camera.
No context is provided for the images and it is unclear where and when they were taken.
Meanwhile, in the August 2010 email, Epstein told Andrew — addressed as “The Duke” — that he had “a friend who I think you might enjoy having dinner with” in London later that month.
In the exchanges, Epstein said the woman was “26, Russian, clevere [clever] beautiful, trustworthy,” noting that he had given her the prince’s email.
Andrew eventually replied he “would be delighted to see her.”
It is unclear if any meeting subsequently took place.
- ‘Private time’ -
Weeks later, he and Epstein appeared to discuss having dinner at Buckingham Palace after the American contacted Andrew while in London saying they needed to have some “private time.”
Andrew replied they could “have dinner at Buckingham Palace and lots of privacy.”
Two days later the ex-duke emailed again that he was “delighted for you to come here to BP (Buckingham Palace).” “Come with whomever...” he added.
It was not clear whether any dinner at the palace — then the official London residence of the late Queen Elizabeth II — ever took place.
In a 2019 BBC interview, Andrew claimed he had cut ties with Epstein after December 2010, but court documents revealed later showed he continued to communicate with him.
Other documents made public last year and Giuffre’s memoir have reignited UK anger over their ties and the claims against Andrew.
The new files also again spotlight the relationship between Epstein and former British ambassador to Washington and UK minister Peter Mandelson.
Mandelson resigned from the US post last year after emails emerged showing he had also maintained friendly contact with him after the American’s 2008 conviction.
The latest disclosures show Epstein in 2009 wired thousands of pounds to Mandelson’s husband after he had asked the American to pay for the fees for an osteopathy course.
