Turkish officials: Arrest of Turkish banker in US 'completely political'

The arrest of a top Turkish banker in the United States on charges of participating in a multi-year scheme to evade sanctions against Iran was a "completely political" move, senior Turkish officials have said, as the details of the FBI file in the case were revealed. 

U.S. prosecutors on March 28 charged Mehmet Hakan Atilla, a deputy general manager of Halkbank, with participating in a multi-year scheme to violate U.S. sanctions against Iran. He is accused of conspiring with wealthy Iranian-Turkish gold trader Reza Zarrab to conduct hundreds of millions of dollars of illegal transactions through U.S. banks on behalf of Iran's government and other entities in that country.

Justice Minister Bekir Bozdağ on March 30 said that the arrest of the banker was "a completely political move." 

"There is no evidence against Zarrab or Turkey in the ongoing court case in the U.S.," Bozdağ said in a televised interview, Reuters reported. 

He also noted the case was designed to tarnish Turkey and President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. 

Atilla, a 47-year-old Turkish citizen, looked somber as he appeared at a brief hearing before U.S. Magistrate Judge James Francis in Manhattan, a day after being arrested at John F. Kennedy International Airport.

The Gülen movement is behind the arrest, according to Bozdağ. 

Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu also made similar comments regarding the issue in a joint press conference along with the U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on March 30. 

"We have been closely following the issue," said Çavuşoğlu, adding that consulate-general officials had access to him on March 29. 

"We shared our thought about this development with Tillerson. The former U.S. prosecutor [who ran the...