Moscow Questions Turkey's Refusal to Investigate Killing of Su-24 Pilot

Deputy Foreign Minister said that statements by Turkish police that they cannot investigate the killing of the Russian pilot of the Su-24 fighter jet downed over Syrian airspace because the crime was committed in Syria are strange.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) – Moscow thinks that statements by Turkish police that they cannot investigate the killing of the Russian pilot of the Su-24 fighter jet downed over Syrian airspace because the crime was committed in Syria are strange, the Russian Foreign Ministry said Friday.

On Thursday, the lawyer of the Turkish national Alparaslan Celik, who is the alleged killer of the Su-24 pilot, said that Turkish police could not investigate the murder of the pilot, because it was committed in a foreign country.

"This is more than a strange argument," Deputy Foreign Minister Aleksey Meshkov told journalists.

The Russian Su-24 attack aircraft was shot down by a Turkish F-16 fighter jet over Syria on November 24, 2015, and fell some two miles from the Turkish border. The crew of the plane ejected and one of its pilots, Oleg Peshkov, was killed by fire from the ground, while the second pilot survived and was later rescued.

Celik was arrested alongside 13 others in the Turkish city of Izmir last Thursday on charges of illegal gun possession.