Graft prosecutor Öz files formal complaint against PM Erdoğan after ‘threat’ claims
ISTANBUL
Öz was removed from his post of Istanbul deputy chief prosecutor and reassigned to a minor post amid the graft probe. AA photo
Prosecutor Zekeriya Öz filed a formal complaint against Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan Jan. 13, less than a week after he claimed he had been threatened by two members of the high judiciary sent by the prime minister.Öz also filed a complaint against Şaban Aslan, the news coordinator of daily Sabah that has published a number of headline stories alleging that the prosecutor had made 22 foreign trips before the graft probe raids targeting the expenses of certain firms.
He reportedly accused the daily in its complaint of making him a target and slander, along with obtaining private information by illegal means.
Publically known for conducting the Ergenekon coup plot investigation, Öz was removed from his post of Istanbul deputy chief prosecutor after he opened a graft investigation that included the sons of three former Cabinet members.
Erdoğan rejected the accusations of threatening Öz as slander while the two judges, identified in Internet reports as Chief Ombudsman Nihat Ömeroğlu and senior justice İsmail Rüştü Cirit, also dismissed the claims.
Öz attached copies of stories that appeared about him in the Sabah daily as well as transcripts of speeches made by Erdoğan to the complaint files as evidence, according to daily Hürriyet.
He filed his complaint shortly after rejecting his reassignment to a minor post as the deputy chief public prosecutor of Istanbul’s Bakırköy district and taking an annual leave.
Prosecutor Akkaş files complaint against governor
Meanwhile, the prosecutor of a second graft investigation Muammer Akkaş, who has been controversially removed from his case denouncing pressures, filed a complaint against Istanbul Gov. Hüseyin Avni Mutlu and chiefs of the judiciary police Jan. 13 for failing to carry out his arrest orders on 41 suspects.
The case has been handed to new prosecutors following Akkaş’s removal, who lifted Jan. 14 the asset freezes issued by Akkaş on seven businessmen.