Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has said he does not see as fair the arrest of Turkish-Iranian tycoon Reza Zarrab and Halkbank Deputy General Manager Mehmet Hakan Atilla in the US.
Atilla was arrested in late March as part of an investigation into the violation of US sanctions on Iran. He is accused of conspiring with wealthy gold trader Zarrab to conduct hundreds of millions of dollars of illegal transactions through US banks on behalf of Iran’s government and other entities in that country.
Speaking on a TV program on Thursday night, Erdoğan said: “It is very saddening for Reza Zarrab and the Halkbank deputy general manager to be subjected to such treatment in the US. We don’t see it as fair.”
Zarrab was the prime suspect in a major corruption investigation that became public in December 2013 in which then-Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s inner circle was implicated. Zarrab was arrested by US authorities in Miami in March 2016 on charges of helping Iran process millions of dollars of transactions when it was under US sanctions for its nuclear program.
The prosecutions of Atilla and Zarrab have raised concerns at the highest levels of Turkish power. Last month Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu called Atilla’s arrest “political”, while Erdoğan has accused U.S. authorities of having “ulterior motives” in prosecuting Zarrab.
TURKISH BANKER IN IRAN SANCTIONS-BUSTING CASE DENIES CHARGES
Mehmet Hakan Atilla, a deputy chief executive at Türkiye Halk Bankası A.Ş., charged with joining in a scheme to launder money through the U.S. financial system on behalf of Iran pleaded not guilty. Atilla entered his plea Thursday in Manhattan federal court. He is accused of using his bank to help Reza Zarrab, a Turkish-American businessman, disguise transactions on behalf of Iran as food deals that are allowed as an exception to U.S. sanctions on Iran.
Atilla was arrested at New York’s John F. Kennedy airport on March 27 and is being held without bail in a local jail. The trial in the case against him and Zarrab is set for August 21, but defence lawyers said they may ask for a later date in order to investigate the case.
Zarrab has hired ex-New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani and former U.S. attorney general Michael Mukasey to try to seek a resolution to his case, in part by requesting meetings with high-level U.S. officials, according to a court filing by federal prosecutors. A hearing on their activities is scheduled for April 24.
