Turkish police arrests third suspect in probe of Russian envoy’s murder

Turkish police on Monday arrested a Russian national who was allegedly in contact with the police officer who gunned down Moscow’s envoy to Turkey in December, according to Turkish media reports on Monday.

The detention means three people are now being held by Turkish police in connection to the Dec. 19 murder of ambassador Andrey Karlov.

Karlov was gunned down while visiting an art gallery in Ankara by an off-duty officer who said he was protesting Russian support for the Syrian government in that country’s civil war.

The shooter was shot dead immediately after the incident.

The two other people detained in relation to the case have been accused by Turkish officials of being followers of Fethullah Gulen, a cleric living in exile in the United States who has been accused of engineering an attempted coup in July, a charge Gulen disputes.

Police say the third detainee is a 33-year-old woman who was in contact with the killer via text messaging service WhatsApp in November, according to a report in the newspaper Sabah.

Russian news agency Tass reports that the Russian embassy has requested clarification about the arrest.