ANKARA: Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said on Tuesday he would ask the United States to extradite a cleric he accuses of plotting to topple him and undermine Turkey with concocted graft accusations and secret wire taps.

Fethullah Gulen has lived in self-imposed exile in Pennsylvania since 1997. Erdogan accuses him of building a “parallel state” of followers in institutions such as the police and judiciary and using them to try to pull the levers of state power.

Gulen, a former ally, denies engineering a police graft investigation which has seen three Cabinet ministers quit, but has denounced Erdogan over moves to shut down the inquiry by purging police and judiciary of his followers.

Asked by a reporter at Parliament after a meeting of his ruling AK Party if a process would begin for Gulen’s extradition, Erdogan said: “Yes, it will begin.”

In an interview with PBS talk show host Charlie Rose broadcast late on Monday, Erdogan said Gulen could also pose a threat to US security by his activities.

“These elements which threaten the national security of Turkey cannot be allowed to exist in other countries because what they do to us here, they might do against their host,” Erdogan told Rose in the interview, according to a transcript.

Erdogan has drawn accusations of increasing authoritarianism with his response to the graft investigation, which has included removing thousands of police officers and hundreds of judges and prosecutors, as well as imposing a two-week ban on Twitter and broadening the powers of the state intelligence service.

Human Rights Watch on Monday criticized a new law giving the national intelligence agency (MIT) more scope for eavesdropping, greater immunity from prosecution for top agents and jail terms for leaks of sensitive information, saying it gave the agency “carte blanche” and was open to abuse.

The government has said the law replaces outdated legislation and brings Turkey in line with international norms. German President Joachim Gauck criticized Erdogan’s leadership style during a trip to Turkey on Monday and warned against curbing freedom of expression.