Google – AFP, 9 March 2014
Ankara —
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's regime, mired in a corruption
scandal, suffered a new blow on Sunday with the online release of another
allegedly incriminating phone call involving an ex-minister and a businessman.
The
recording of the phone conversation posted on the Internet was purportedly
between Reza Zarrab, an Azerbaijani entrepreneur, and a confidant to whom
Zarrab explains how former economy minister Zafer Caglayan allegedly complained
about not having received a promised kickback of 10 million euros ($13.8
million).
The voice
supposedly of Zarrab says he was "very surprised" that the
ex-minister hadn't received the money which came from his company, saying it
must have been "a mistake".
Caglayan
and three other ministers were ousted from Erdogan's cabinet after a police
raid on December 17 in the vast corruption probe, which involved Caglayan's son
and several dozen high-profile political and business allies of the
Islamic-rooted government.
Zarrab was
among those arrested in the raid and charged before being released last week
along several other suspects pending trial.
According
to police documents, the minister's son Kaan Caglayan is accused of acting as
an intermediary for giving and taking bribes, while Zarrab was suspected of
forming a ring that bribed officials to disguise illegal gold sales to sanctions-hit
Iran via state-owned Halkbank.
The latest
online leak comes after a number of audio recordings were posted on social
media sites, one allegedly of Erdogan himself discussing hiding large sums of
cash and conspiring to extort a bribe from a business associate.
Erdogan,
who has dismissed the recordings as fabricated by his rivals, has threatened to
ban popular networks like YouTube and Facebook as part of his government's
effort to get a tighter grip on the Internet.
The Turkish
premier has accused supporters of exiled Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen, who
wields considerable influence in the judiciary and police, of launching the
corruption probe to destabilise his government ahead of March 30 local
elections and a presidential vote in August.
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