Muammer Güler

The main opposition People's Republican Party (CHP) will send a delegation to the U.S. to attend the hearing of Reza Zarrab, an Iranian-Turkish businessman who was arrested in Florida last week, in a bid to observe the case closely, the party's deputy parliamentary group chair said March 28.

The fifth penal chamber of Turkey's Supreme Court of Appeals ruled on March 23 for an arrest warrant for a public prosecutor who conducted the major Dec. 17, 2013, graft probe and was later dismissed from the profession.

The U.S. Department of Justice announced on March 21 that Iranian origin Turkish businessman Reza Zarrab had been arrested on charges of "engaging in hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of transactions on behalf of the government of Iran and other Iranian entities, which were barred by U.S.

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. 

The Justice and Development Party (AKP) has made solid steps to fight against corruption, former Deputy Prime Minister Ali Babacan has claimed in an interview with private broadcaster NTV, saying that if it did not do so it would become a sustainability issue for the party.

Transparency International Turkey, along with a number of rights groups, called for reopening Turkey?s Dec. 17 and 25, 2013, corruption cases as well as lifting the immunity from punishment for four former ministers involved in the case, in an open letter addressed to 550 newly elected deputies of the June 7 parliamentary elections.

Two prosecutors and a judge who initiated Turkey's biggest corruption investigation will be tried in the Supreme Court of Appeals as an Istanbul court decided on June 15 to send their indictments to the top court.

A much-awaited new book by Ahmet Sever, the 12-year ally of former president Abdullah Gül, leaves no doubt that tension between Gül and current President Recep Tayyip Erdo?an rose on several occasions, peaking after the corruption allegations arose against the latter?s former ministers in December 2013. 

Turkey's top judicial body has dismissed from the profession four prosecutors and one judge, who had been involved in the country's biggest-ever corruption investigation in December 2013.

The names of four former cabinet ministers who were accused in Turkey?s largest ever corruption probe are not on the April 7 candidate list of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP).