Thousands mourn Fethullah Gülen, a Turkish spiritual leader who died in the US

Augusta, N.J. (AP) — Family, friends and followers of Fethullah Gülen gathered Thursday to pay respects to the influential Turkish spiritual leader and Islamic scholar who died this week in self-exile in the United States.

Gülen, who inspired a global social movement while facing unproven allegations that he orchestrated a failed 2016 military coup against Turkey's president, died Sunday at a Pennsylvania hospital. He was in his 80s.

Under a heavy police presence, thousands of people filled a small stadium in North New Jersey for a prayer service, which was conducted largely in Turkish, with Islamic prayers and readings from the Quran.

“We all feel like we’ve lost a father,” Usame Tunagar, a longtime associate, told mourners. Followers who served as pallbearers either studied under Gülen directly or attended a school inspired by his movement. They walked into the stadium, carrying the casket, which was draped in a green covering and inscribed in yellow with Quran verses.

Organizers said a brother and a sister were in attendance. Another brother is imprisoned in Turkey.

No memorial services are expected to take place in Turkey. Publicly mourning, glorifying or otherwise sympathizing with Gülen may lead to imprisonment on charges of promoting and supporting terrorism.

After the service in New Jersey, Gülen was buried in Saylorsburg, Pennsylvania, on the grounds of the Chestnut Retreat Center, a sprawling, gated compound in the Pocono Mountains where he lived and worked for a quarter-century. Hundreds of mourners attended the burial, including family and close friends.

“This is a solemn time of mourning, reflection, and prayer,” the Alliance for Shared Values said in a statement. The New York-based group promotes Gülen’s work in the U.S.

“Mr. Gülen’s legacy transcends the circumstances of his life," the group said. "He stands as a remarkable religious and intellectual thinker whose impact will be felt for generations.”

Gülen had long been one of Turkey’s most important scholars, with millions of followers in his native country and around the world. He had lived in the United States since 1999, when he came to seek medical treatment.

His philosophy blended Sufism — a mystical form of Islam — with staunch advocacy of democracy, education, science and interfaith dialogue. His acolytes built a loosely affiliated global network of charitable foundations, professional associations, businesses and schools in more than 100 countries, including 150 taxpayer-funded charter schools throughout the United States.

The religious leader began as an ally of Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan but became a foe. He called Erdogan an authoritarian bent on accumulating power and crushing dissent. Erdogan cast Gülen as a terrorist, accusing him of masterminding the attempted coup on July 15, 2016, when factions within the military used tanks, warplanes and helicopters to try to overthrow the government.

A total of 251 people were killed and around 2,200 others were wounded. Around 35 alleged coup plotters were killed.

Shortly after the coup attempt, the normally reclusive cleric summoned reporters to his living quarters at the Pennsylvania compound to deny any knowledge or involvement in its planning. He said he wouldn’t have returned to Turkey even if the coup had succeeded, fearing he would be “persecuted and harassed.”

“This is a tranquil and clean place and I enjoy and I live my freedom here,” Gülen said of the secluded Islamic retreat, founded by Turkish Americans, that he adopted as his home and where he would be buried eight years later. “Longing for my homeland burns in my heart, but freedom is also equally important.”

In Turkey, Gülen’s movement — sometimes known as Hizmet, Turkish for “service” — has been subjected to a broad crackdown. The government arrested tens of thousands of people for their alleged link to the coup plot, sacked more than 130,000 suspected supporters from civil service jobs and more than 23,000 from the military, and closed hundreds of businesses, schools and media organizations tied to Gülen.

The Turkish government reacted to his death this week by vowing to keep up the pressure on the Gülenist movement. Erdogan said Gülen had suffered a “dishonorable death” and likened him to a “demon in human form.” He pledged the movement would be “completely eliminated.”

Gulen was never charged with a crime in the U.S., and the U.S. government had rejected Turkey’s demands to extradite him. The cleric consistently denounced terrorism as well as the coup plotters.

A casket bearing the body of Fethullah Gülen, a Muslim cleric living in exile in the United States and faced unproven allegations that he orchestrated a failed 2016 coup in Turkey, sits in Skylands Stadium in Augusta, N.J., where thousands gathered for funeral prayers on Thursday Oct. 24. 2024. (AP Photo/Mike Rubinkam)

Fethullah Gulen's sister, Fazilet Korucuk, in blue head covering, touches his casket at a prayer service in Augusta, on Thursday, Oct. 24, in Augusta, New Jersey.(AP Photo/Mike Rubinkam)

Thousands gather to morn the death of Fethullah Gülen, a Muslim cleric living in exile in the United States who faced unproven allegations that he orchestrated a failed 2016 coup in Turkey, in Skylands Stadium in Augusta, N.J., on Thursday, Oct. 24. 2024. (AP Photo/Mike Rubinkam)

A casket bearing the body of Fethullah Gülen, a Muslim cleric living in exile in the United States who faced unproven allegations that he orchestrated a failed 2016 coup in Turkey, sits in Skylands Stadium in Augusta, N.J., where thousands gathered for funeral prayers, Thursday, Oct. 24. 2024. (AP Photo/Mike Rubinkam)

Thousands gather to morn the death of Fethullah Gülen, a Muslim cleric living in exile in the United States who faced unproven allegations that he orchestrated a failed 2016 coup in Turkey, in Skylands Stadium in Augusta, N.J., on Thursday, Oct. 24. 2024. (AP Photo/Mike Rubinkam)

Mourners carry the casket of Fethullah Gülen, an influential Turkish spiritual leader and Islamic scholar who died this week in self-exile in the United States, at a funeral prayer service, Thursday, Oct, 24, 2024, in Augusta, N.J. (AP Photo/Eduardo Munoz Alvarez)

Mourners carry the casket of Fethullah Gülen, an influential Turkish spiritual leader and Islamic scholar who died this week in self-exile in the United States, at a funeral prayer service, Thursday, Oct, 24, 2024, in Augusta, N.J. (AP Photo/Eduardo Munoz Alvarez)

Mourners carry the casket of Fethullah Gülen, an influential Turkish spiritual leader and Islamic scholar who died this week in self-exile in the United States, at a funeral prayer service, Thursday, Oct, 24, 2024, in Augusta, N.J. (AP Photo/Eduardo Munoz Alvarez)

Mourners carry the casket of Fethullah Gülen, an influential Turkish spiritual leader and Islamic scholar who died this week in self-exile in the United States, at a funeral prayer service, Thursday, Oct, 24, 2024, in Augusta, N.J. (AP Photo/Eduardo Munoz Alvarez)

A casket bearing the body of Fethullah Gülen, a Muslim cleric living in exile in the United States and faced unproven allegations that he orchestrated a failed 2016 coup in Turkey, sits in Skylands Stadium in Augusta, New Jersey, where thousands gathered for funeral prayers on Thursday Oct. 24. 2024. (AP Photo/Mike Rubinkam)

Mourners carry the casket of Fethullah Gülen, an influential Turkish spiritual leader and Islamic scholar who died this week in self-exile in the United States, at a funeral prayer service, Thursday, Oct, 24, 2024, in Augusta, N.J. (AP Photo/Eduardo Munoz Alvarez)

Mourners grieve Fethullah Gülen, a Turkish spiritual leader who died in US

FILE - Turkish Islamic cleric Fethullah Gulen speaks to members of the media at his compound in Saylorsburg, Pa. in July 2016. (AP Photo/Chris Post, File)

Mourners grieve Fethullah Gülen, a Turkish spiritual leader who died in US

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Prosecutors will recommend Erik and Lyle Menendez be resentenced for the 1989 killings of their parents in the family’s Beverly Hills home, providing the brothers with a chance at freedom after 34 years behind bars.

An official with knowledge of the decision who was not authorized to speak on the record ahead of a planned press conference confirmed that Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón would recommend resentencing for the brothers.

They were sentenced in 1996 to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Prosecutors must now seek court approval.

Lyle Menendez, then 21, and Erik Menendez, then 18, admitted they fatally shot their entertainment executive father, Jose Menendez, and their mother, Kitty Menendez. The brothers said they feared their parents were about to kill them to stop people from finding out that Jose Menendez had sexually abused Erik Menendez for years.

The brothers’ extended family has pleaded for their release, saying they deserve to be free after decades behind bars. Several family members have said that in today’s world — which is more aware of the impact of sexual abuse — the brothers would not have been convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life.

Multiple members of their extended family, including their aunt Joan Andersen VanderMolen, sat in the first few rows of Thursday's news conference. Joan Andersen VanderMolen was Kitty Menendez’s sister and has publicly supported their release. Mark Geragos, an attorney for the brothers, was also there.

The Menendez brothers were tried twice for their parents’ murders, with the first trial ending in a hung jury.

Prosecutors at the time contended that there was no evidence of molestation, and many details in their story of sexual abuse were not permitted in the second trial. The district attorney’s office also said back then that the brothers were after their parents’ multimillion-dollar estate.

Not all Menendez family members support resentencing. Attorneys for Milton Anderson, the 90-year-old brother of Kitty Menendez, filed a legal brief asking the court to keep the brothers’ original punishment. “They shot their mother, Kitty, reloading to ensure her death,” Anderson’s attorneys said in a statement Thursday. “The evidence remains overwhelmingly clear: the jury’s verdict was just, and the punishment fits the heinous crime.”

The LA district attorney is in the middle of a tough reelection fight against former federal prosecutor Nathan Hochman who has blamed Gascón’s progressive reform policies for recent high-profile murders and increased retail crime.

FILE - Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascon addresses the media at a news conference at the Hall of Justice in Los Angeles on Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2024. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes, File)

FILE - Kitty Menendez's sister, Joan Andersen VanderMolen, bottom left, and niece Karen VanderMolen, right, sit together during a press conference to announce developments on the case of brothers Erik and Lyle Menendez, Wednesday, Oct. 16, 2024, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes, File)

FILE - Lyle, left, and Erik Menendez sit with defense attorney Leslie Abramson, right, in Beverly Hills Municipal Court during a hearing, Nov. 26, 1990. (AP Photo/Nick Ut, File)