Erdogan continues to provide sanctuary to radical Kuwaiti cleric Hakim al-Mutairi in Turkey

Abdullah Bozkurt/Stockholm

The Islamist government of Turkey is persisting in providing refuge to radical Kuwaiti Muslim cleric Sheikh Hakim al-Mutairi, a convicted felon who has collaborated with known al-Qaeda figures, advocated for jihad against America and conspired to destabilize the Gulf monarchies.

Mutairi, identified as Hakem O.H.O. Almutairi in Turkish government records, has resided in Turkey since 2018. He was briefly apprehended in December 2023 on an arrest warrant issued by Kuwait but was promptly released following intervention from the highest levels of Erdogan’s administration.

It was revealed that he had been granted residence in Turkey, where he provided logistical support for disseminating radical Salafist ideologies, raised funds and held meetings with high-ranking Turkish government officials.

In April 2021 Kuwait’s Criminal Court sentenced al-Mutairi to life in prison on numerous charges, largely stemming from leaked recordings of a meeting with the late Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi. These audio leaks, disclosed in June 2020, exposed a scheme to disrupt security in the Gulf region and Egypt

In the undated recording, al-Mutairi informs Gaddafi of his intentions to overthrow the ruling families in the Arabian Gulf and solicits support from the Libyan dictator.

In a surprising development, Turkish police detained al-Mutairi in Istanbul on December 25, 2023. He was slated for deportation to Kuwait to serve his sentence and was transferred to a deportation center in Turkey’s western province of Izmir.

The foreigner Identity card issued for Sheikh Hakim al-Mutairi in Turkey:

On December 26 the provincial branch of the Directorate General of Migration (Göç İdaresi Genel Müdürlüğü) in Izmir decided to put him in administrative detention and planned to deport him to Kuwait under decision number 3059744.

Nevertheless, following interference in his case by the Erdogan government, the migration agency reversed its decision the following day, shortly before midnight, and released him. He was instructed to check in with the migration agency once a month.

The address listed on the migration agency document indicates that al-Mutairi resides in a luxury apartment complex situated in Istanbul’s conservative district of Başakşehir, a stronghold for the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) led by Erdogan. Apartments listed for sale in the same complex are valued at millions of Turkish lira and are frequently advertised as providing eligibility for a citizenship program.

He had also reportedly purchased three apartments in the Kağıthane district of Istanbul, each valued at around 4 million Turkish lira.

The Erdogan government permits foreigners to acquire Turkish citizenship by purchasing property at a specified market value. It seems that al-Mutairi is on track to become a citizen through this process, just like many Muslim Brotherhood figures, certain jihadist individuals and notorious mafia and organized crime leaders who have obtained citizenship through similar means.

The expired residence permit card for al-Mutairi, obtained by Nordic Monitor, revealed that he was granted residence by the Interior Ministry’s migration agency on December 12, 2020, for a two-year term, which ran out on December 11. Mutairi subsequently applied for permanent residence on December 12, 2022, under the property investment scheme, and his application was reportedly approved. The application for permanent residence, registered under number 2022-12-1984796, was submitted to the migration agency’s Esenyurt branch in Istanbul.

The Erdogan government helped al-Mutairi establish his operational base in Turkey, facilitating his meetings with government officials, including the head of Turkey’s Religious Affairs Directorate (Diyanet).

The Diyanet is a vast organization that oversees approximately 90,000 mosques in Turkey and abroad, with around 140,000 staff members. Photos obtained by Nordic Monitor depict al-Mutairi in discussions with Mehmet Görmez, the then-president of the Diyanet, in the office of the government’s top imam in Ankara in 2016.

He has been invited to deliver lectures at public universities, distribute his books translated into Turkish and raise funds in Turkey, all in exchange for his vocal support for President Erdogan and his government. During every election campaign, al-Mutairi has issued statements endorsing Erdogan’s candidacy, framing it as a struggle between Muslim Turkey and its adversaries in the West and Russia.

In August 2018 amid financial challenges confronting the Erdogan government, al-Mutairi asserted that Turkey was under attack by the US and the West, declaring it a duty for all Muslims to aid Turkey as part of jihad.

Yasin Aktay, a Turkish Muslim Brotherhood figure, former lawmaker and advisor to Erdogan, has been the key figure in managing al-Mutairi’s affairs in Turkey. He facilitates meetings with government officials and addresses any issues al-Mutairi encounters in his dealings within Turkey.

Nordic Monitor previously published a secret wiretap revealing how Erdogan personally intervened in lifting an entry ban for al-Mutairi in 2013, when the preacher attempted to visit Turkey.

The detention and deportation decision issued by Turkey’s migration agency was reversed a day later: 

The revelations came during a phone conversation between Erdogan’s chief of staff, Hasan Doğan, who received a call from Osama Qotb, the nephew of Egyptian cleric Sayyid Qutb, a founder of the Muslim Brotherhood, on September 26, 2013 at 19:32 hours.

Qotb was calling to sort out problems with a scheduled conference on Egypt to be held in Istanbul following the ouster of Mohamed Morsi from power. The conference was cancelled under pressure from Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, both of which had relatively stable ties with the Turkish government at the time. The conference organizers received a notice from the police days before the event which stated that permission had not been granted to hold the conference.

Explaining that al-Mutairi was the man behind the idea of organizing such a conference in Istanbul, Qotb pleaded with Erdogan’s chief of staff to put the conference back on track. In the phone conversation he also disclosed that al-Mutairi had faced problems at the border when he tried to enter Turkey in the past and that Erdogan helped him resolve the entry ban issue.

“Now they are prepared for this conference, they worked out everything, over 100 people from abroad were invited,” Qotb told Doğan, lamenting that the police told them to cancel the event. He also added that lawmakers from Erdogan’s party such as Emrullah Işler, a former deputy prime minister and the Turkish president’s special envoy to Libya, were involved in preparations for the conference.

Doğa said he would talk to the intelligence chief to find out what more could be done about the conference. At one point in the conversation Doğan asked Qotb whether he had talked to the “uncle,” a reference to Yasin al-Qadi, an Egyptian-born Saudi national who was at one time flagged by the US Treasury and the UN al-Qaeda sanctions committee. Qotb had been representing al-Qadi’s business and personal interests in Turkey and working closely with Erdogan’s son Bilal. Qotb indicated he had talked to al-Qadi about the conference and said the “uncle” advised him to not to proceed with the conference if it would create too much trouble for Turkey.

Qotb further requested that Erdogan’s chief of staff intervene in relaxing the restrictions placed on Kuwaiti cleric al-Mutairi while he was in Turkey. He said the police would not even allow al-Mutairi to distribute his books at his hotel.

Al-Mutairi is designated as a terrorist by Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Bahrain. He leads the Kuwaiti Ummah Party, a political organization espousing extremist and Salafist ideologies. He has served as an inspiration for numerous jihadists, including Saudi Royal Air Force 2nd Lt. Mohammed Saeed Alshamrani.

Alshamrani carried out an attack in a classroom at the Naval Aviation Schools Command in Florida on December 6, 2019, resulting in the shooting death of three people and the injury of eight others before he was killed in a shootout with sheriff’s deputies.

Sheikh Hakim al-Mutairi’s application for permanent residence:

Al-Mutairi has supplied funding and assistance to jihadist militias in Syria, such as Jabhat al Nusra, Jund al Aqsa and Liwa al-Ummah. Since 2012 he has collaborated with UN and US-sanctioned al-Qaeda facilitators Hajjaj bin Fahd al-Ajmi and the now-deceased al-Qaeda leader Muhammad Yusuf Abd al-Salam (aka Abu Abdulaziz al-Qatari) to funnel support to al-Qaeda in Syria

He is a close associate of UN and US-sanctioned Qatari al-Qaeda financier Abd al-Rahman bin Umayr al-Nuaimi. In 2004 al-Mutairi was a founding member of the Geneva-based front organization, Alkarama Foundation, along with Abd al-Rahman al-Nuaimi. In 2014 and 2016 al-Mutairi was photographed meeting with al-Nuaimi after al-Nuaimi had been sanctioned as an al-Qaeda financier. Since 2006 al-Mutairi has served as a member of the board of trustees of the Global Anti-Aggression Campaign, which is led by al-Nuaim

In 2011, following the death of Osama bin Laden, al-Mutairi released a statement praising the al-Qaeda leader for his jihad against the West.

Al-Mutairi is not the sole radical jihadist protected by the Erdogan government in Turkey. Numerous notorious clerics and jihadists have found safe haven in Turkey over the past decade, owing to shared ideological affinities with the Erdogan government, which espouses staunch anti-Western views and perceives itself as a leader of Muslims worldwide.