Corruption case is not judicial but political, Turkish minister says

ANKARA / ISTANBUL

'That money was earned through the sale of my son’s mansion in Bahçeşehir [neighborhood of Istanbul],' Interior Minister Muammer Güler said. AP Photo

The ongoing corruption probe is not judicial but political, Turkish Interior Minister Muammer Güler said today after attending a ceremony at Çanakaya Köşk in Ankara.

The minister also said those who launched the operation acted as they wanted to and had already decided on the guilt of the accused.

“The summary of proceedings for four ministers was presented to the police before the testimonies were taken. We haven’t done anything illegal. The law is being disregarded,” Güler said.

Güler said his son the claims that had been prepared were both groundless and tantamount to blackmail.

“They did not have to inform me, but this country has a prime minister. I will be called to account, and so will those who gave wrong information,” Güler said.

Güler says cash found in his son’s house earned from house sale

Güler has claimed piles of money found in his son’s house as part of a vast graft operation were yielded by selling a house.

“That money was earned through the sale of my son’s mansion in Bahçeşehir [neighborhood of Istanbul],” the minister told daily Posta, referring to a large cache of U.S. dollars and euros seized by the police during a raid on the house of his son, Barış Güler.

Several photos reported taken during the raid were revealed on Dec. 18, a day after the operation was launched, showing six safe boxes and piles of money in the house.

The minister further claimed the money could not be put in a bank due to an encumbrance-related problem.

“It would be impossible to declare the source of the money [due to an encumbrance issue]. Therefore they were waiting for the $1.2-million encumbrance to be solved,” he was reported as saying.

“My son is one of the cleanest people in the world,” he added.

Barış Güler was arrested Dec. 21 along with the economy minister’s son Kaan Çağlayan and general manager of state-run lender Halkbank on the graft charges.

He was one of the suspects of a corruption investigation which was launched on Dec. 17, giving a
shock to the country’s political agenda and shaking the Justice and Development (AKP) government.

The interior minister had denied the bribery allegations made against him and his son in a Twitter message posted on his account.

“None of our businesses are illegal and we don’t have any accounts that we cannot give,” Güler had said on Dec. 22.