US trial against Turkish banker Atilla 'not legal but political' - Bozdağ

Turkey condemned the sentencing of an executive from one of its state-owned banks as a political attack by the United States on Thursday, after a New York court handed down a 32 month prison sentence in an Iran-sanctions busting case. Bekir Bozdağ, the government spokesman and deputy prime minister, on Thursday made comments over Halkbank case, and saying US trial against Turkish banker Hakan Atilla was 'not legal but political'.

World
Agencies and A News
Published Date: 12:00 | 17 May 2018
Modified Date: 12:47 | 17 May 2018

The U.S. prison sentence given to a Turkish banker lacks any legal foundation, said Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Bekir Bozdağ on Thursday, blasting it as a politically motivated decision.

The District Court for the Southern District of New York on Wednesday sentenced former Halkbank Deputy CEO Mehmet Hakan Atilla to 32 months in prison for violating U.S. sanctions on Iran.

"This trail was not legal but political," Bozdağ , a government spokesman, said in a series of tweets, stating that the court decision came as the result of a "fictitious trial".

"The court violated the law, did not hold a fair trial; just completed the mandatory procedure for declaring a pre-determined decision," he added.

He went on to say that trail was "a game that played and staged by the CIA, the FBI, FETO [Fetullah Terrorist Organization] and the U.S. judiciary."

FETO and its U.S.-based leader Fetullah Gulen are behind the July 15, 2016 defeated coup, which martyred 250 people and injured 2,200, as well as a wide-ranging conspiracy in the military, police, and judiciary.

Bozdağ also said the New York court relied on forged evidence and false statements of members of FETO.

"No one can bring Turkey to heel or influence Ankara with conspiracy cases," said Bozdağ .

OTHER WORLD NEWS