Zarrab’s arrest will enlighten Turkey’s corruption case: CHP

ANKARA

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The arrest of Iranian-born Turkish businessman Reza Zarrab in the United States will also help reveal of facts about four former ministers who have been accused of being bribed by Zarrab, the main opposition leader has said. 

“My dear friends, Reza Zarrab was arrested in America. I am sure many will not get a wink of sleep tonight; they won’t be able to sleep in comfort in their beds,” Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, chairman of the Republican People’s Party (CHP) told his lawmakers at the parliament on March 22. 

The news that Zarrab was arrested by a Florida court on March 19 on charges that he and others conspired to conduct hundreds of millions of dollars in financial transactions for the Iranian government and/or other entities to evade U.S. sanctions broke late March 21. In his first reaction as the main opposition leader, Kılıçdaroğlu drew attention to Zarrab’s relations with four former ministers who had to resign early 2014 after being accused of fraud and corruption. 

“Reza Zarrab will speak there, you will see. All dirty relations will then be exposed and we’ll therefore be informed about the facts on these four ministers,” he said. 

Former ministers Egemen Bağış, Zafer Çağlayan, Muammer Güler and Erdoğan Bayraktar from the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) were the subject of fraud and corruption allegations in the aftermath of a massive corruption and fraud case in December 2013. 

“What have we been saying? That God is great. We should not allow any unlawfulness and injustice. We should aggrandize Turkey in regards to rule of law,” he added. 

Reza Zarrab, 33, was charged in an indictment filed in a federal court of New York City along with one of his employees, Kamelia Jamshidy, and Hossein Najafzadeh, a senior officer at a unit of Bank Mellat in Iran, U.S. prosecutors said on March 21.