Health minister criticizes AKP officials’ relatives over alleged fraud

ANKARA - Hürriyet

Health Minister Mehmet Müezzinoğlu. AA photo

Health Minister Mehmet Müezzinoğlu has criticized two senior Justice and Development Party (AKP) officials’ relatives over their alleged involvement in a swindle using the name of the Health Ministry.

“Those who made mistakes and exploited our nation and our name should pay the price in front of law,” he told daily Hürriyet on Dec. 2, responding to recent allegations against Sports Minister Suat Kılıç’s father-in-law and the brother-in-law of the prime minister’s chief advisor, Yalçın Akdoğan.

The two men are accused of swindling approximately 150 contractors, by lying about signing a protocol with the Health Ministry. 

According to a report in daily Sözcü, Akdoğan’s brother-in-law, Oktay Ferşat, declared that he would start up 4,000 112 Emergency Stations across the country, alongside Ali Yüksel, Kılıç’s father-in-law and also a former advisor of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

The report claimed that they had signed contracts with around 150 contractors, showing them a counterfeit protocol that they claimed to have signed with the Health Ministry, under an enterprise called Ferşat Group,

“We learned that our name was taken advantage of later. Those who acted falsely are also subject to all kinds of legal penalties. The required legal action should be taken against them,” Health Minister Müezzinoğlu said, also stating that the ministry had launched an investigation into claims that other ministry officials were involved in the incident. 

Akdoğan announced last week that he has already taken legal action against Ferşat, stating that he had filed a legal complaint after learning that Ferşat had been using his name in business.