Kılıçdaroğlu fined for ‘illicit money’ transaction claims

ANKARA

Main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu has been fined by a court for claiming President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s family hid money offshore in the Isle of Man.

An Istanbul court on Nov. 13 sentenced Kılıçdaroğlu to pay 130,000 Turkish Liras for “damages” to the president over claims of money transfers.

There are now four separate suits seeking damages from Kılıçdaroğlu on the same claims targeting Erdoğan and his relatives, with the amount of compensation demanded currently totaling 828,000 liras. The total compensation Kılıçdaroğlu has to pay Erdoğan and his relatives has totaled 1,140,000 liras with other sentences.

The CHP leader expressed the claims and showed some receipts of transactions in a speech at his party’s group meeting in November 2017.

The ruling party first claimed that the receipts were fake, then the CHP leader handed over the documents to the Ankara prosecutor. The prosecution had ruled the receipts were valid, but the file was closed because there was no “illicit money.”