Prosecutor’s Office in İstanbul Launches Investigation into US Prosecutor Bharara

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İstanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office has launched an investigation into United State (US) State Attorney Preet Bharara, who is the former prosecutor of Rıza Sarraf case and got Sarraf arrested.

The investigation includes prosecutor Joon H. Kim as well.

İstanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office said that the investigation was launched on the ground that certain information and documents used in prosecutions carried out by İstanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office are presented as evidence in the ongoing trial of citizens of Turkey in the US.

“As can be understood from sworn statement presented by Cathy Flaming at New York Southern Regional Court dated October 31, 2017, it was established that ‘the documents and evidence presented to the trial file are stolen, fabricated and of unknown source’. The aforementioned 15-page sworn statement was acquired via Internet from US judicial system and that an investigation has been launched into who obtained the data in what methods”.

Bharara: Minister of Foreign Affairs of Turkey is a liar

Turkey FM is a liar. Now let's see what happens in court. https://t.co/WQmuex92xG

— Preet Bharara (@PreetBharara) 17 Kasım 2017

Bharara referring to Minister of Foreign Affairs Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, who claimed that Bharara is “close to Fethullah Gülen (Head of Gülen Movement)”, “Minister of Foreign Affairs of Turkey is a liar”.

Making a statement on his Twitter account, Bharara said, “Now let's see what happens in court”.

Çavuşoğlu also defended that “FETÖ (Fethullahist Terror Organization) has infiltrated into the US system” as the trial of Rıza Sarraf, who is imprisoned in the US on charges of bypassing US sanctions on Iran, money laundering and banking fraud, continues in the US.

Dismissed from duty by Donald Trump government in March, Bharara said in a program he attended on CNN that, “[President Recep Tayyip] Erdoğan insisted for me to be dismissed, he thought that would drop the Rıza Sarraf case”.

Bharara added that this wouldn’t make any change and his team will continue the investigation in the same manner. (AS/TK)