NBA star Enes Kanter, who plays for the New York Knicks, has emphatically rejected the allegations against him, tweeting: “The only thing I terrorize is the rim.

“Turkish Government can NOT present any single piece of evidence of my wrongdoing. I don’t even have a parking ticket in the US. I have always been a law-abiding resident.”

Prosecutors are seeking an Interpol Red Notice after claiming that Kanter has ties to the exiled Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen, who was blamed for a failed coup in Turkey in 2016.

The sports star is also accused of providing financial support to Gulen’s group.

Kanter was due to travel to London as his team prepare to play the Washington Wizards at The O2 Arena on Thursday – but earlier this month, he announced he would not be joining them over fears he could be killed over his opposition to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Describing Mr Erdogan as “the Hitler of our century”, he had said: “They’ve got a lot of spies… I think I can get killed there easy. It would be a very ugly situation.”

His Turkish passport was revoked in 2017.

Kanter also recently wrote an opinion piece for the Washington Post, in which he said: “My decision not to travel to London was difficult from a competitive standpoint but much easier from a safety one.

“It helps puts a spotlight on how a dictator is wrecking Turkey – people have been killed, thousands are unjustly imprisoned, and countless lives have been ruined. That is no game.”

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