Twitter whistleblower Fuat Avni claimed on Monday that President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has ordered the intelligence agency head to stage a false assassination plot against his son Bilal Erdoğan in order to blame the Gülen movement.

Avni, a government insider who has been revealing plots by Erdoğan and his associates, said Erdoğan gave instructions to Hakan Fidan, the head of the National Intelligence Organization (MİT), to stage an attack to inflict light injuries on Bilal in what looks like an assassination attempt. Erdoğan will use the assault to associate the Gülen movement with terror and violence.

The Gülen movement, also known as the Hizmet movement, is a civic, peaceful and volunteer-driven movement inspired by Turkish Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen. The movement emphasizes science, education, moderation and interfaith culture. Gülen, who has been critical of Erdoğan and the government over pervasive corruption, has been targeted by Erdoğan since the graft investigations that went public in December 2013.

The whistleblower said Erdoğan has lost his reasoning and does not hesitate to drag his own children into plots aimed at prolonging his political career. He noted that Erdoğan is not deterred despite the botched effort at fabricating an alleged plan to assassinate his daughter in February.

Main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) İstanbul deputy Umut Oran, who was accused by Erdoğan and the pro-government media of plotting on Twitter to assassinate Erdoğan’s daughter Sümeyye Erdoğan, refuted the claims using official documents provided by Twitter.

Pro-government media outlets claimed in February that Oran had exchanged correspondence with Avni over the alleged assassination plot. The plan fell apart when Oran disproved all the false accusations after presenting official documents. The fact that some messages exceeded the maximum character limits allowed by Twitter was also cited as further proof that the story had been fabricated.

The Ankara Public Prosecutor’s Office immediately launched an investigation into the claims of the planned assassination after the report but the investigation was stalled by the government according to the opposition. The main opposition CHP lawyers have been following the case closely and pressing the prosecutor’s office to find out what happened with the criminal complaint filed by Oran against the perpetrators of the plot against him.

CHP leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu argued that the stories were fabricated by MİT under instructions from President Erdoğan. “We know very well that these stories are made up by MİT. We know how many people from which department of MİT have been assigned to make up these stories,” Kılıçdaroğlu told reporters after the alleged assassination plot was reported in pro-Erdoğan media.

On Monday Avni also revealed another plot devised by Erdoğan. He said the plan involved the killing of judges from the penal courts of peace, popularly known as “super judges.” The relatively new penal courts of peace are wıdely seen as a government tool to crush dissent and jail dissidents. The role of these judges has been criticized by the opposition as they are seen as being highly partisan and government loyalists in their exercise of broad powers over investigations and other courts’ rulings.

According to the whistleblower, some 22 members of MİT were dispatched to İstanbul to carry out the plot that involves not only the killing of judges, but also other people known to be Erdoğan loyalists. He said MİT had already arranged for several informants to falsely confess that the murders were committed by members affiliated with the Gülen movement.

People and businesses associated with the Gülen movement have been victimized over the last couple of years since Erdoğan and his associates in the government began using the movement as a scapegoat for their own failures with the aim of distracting public attention from growing accusations of corruption, favoritism and nepotism in the government that have been raised by the main opposition political party.

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