Turkish deputy prime minister mole in fraud case: CHP head

ANKARA – Hürriyet Daily News

Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu holds up a folder titled 'lighthouse mole file.' AA photo

The leader of the main opposition yesterday accused a deputy prime minister of providing insider information to suspects in a high-profile charity fraud investigation in a long-awaited revelation. The minister was quick to rebuff the allegations.

“The mole is Beşir Atalay,” Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu said yesterday during his party’s parliamentary group meeting.

Atalay swiftly denied Kılıçdaroğlu’s allegations and said he would sue the main opposition leader over the claims.

“I have made absolutely no attempt to influence any ongoing case neither during my term as interior minister, nor before or after that,” he said in a written statement, adding that the accusations were “sheer lies.”

Kılıçdaroğlu had said earlier that he would reveal in the group meeting the name of the “mole” who allegedly sent an advance warning of an impending police search to suspects in the Deniz Feneri (Lighthouse) case.

Although Kılıçdaroğlu did not reveal the name until yesterday, several media reports had suggested that he had implied it was Atalay, who was the interior minister at the time of the police search.

“It looks like someone has to come out and openly say the name,” Kılıçdaroğlu told his deputies in Parliament, recalling a parliamentary question he submitted in 2008 in which he asked the prime minister if the investigation would be objective when Atalay and Lighthouse suspects Zaid Akman and Zekeriya Karaman, who are both under arrest pending trial, were partners in a media and publishing company.

“I also asked if Atalay, who was paid as a consultant by Kanal 7 before being elected a deputy, could be impartial in the probe,” the CHP leader said. “It has been three years and I’m still waiting for an answer.”

Kılıçdaroğlu then disclosed a dossier that he said contained records of telephone conversations made from Atalay’s office before the police raided the Kanal 7 headquarters on orders from the prosecutor’s office. The CHP head said the call was made by Atalay’s personal security head.

“These documents prove that the suspects were informed about the raid,” said Kılıçdaroğlu, giving information on telephone calls made on Sept. 14, 2009. The raid took place on Oct. 16, 2009.

“This is the dossier of the mole,” Kılıçdaroğlu said, lifting up the dossier in his hand to a cheering audience. “The mole is Beşir Atalay.”

Atalay rejects claims

Atalay rejected Kılıçdaroğlu’s accusations in a written statement released late yesterday. Atalay’s statement said Kılıçdaroğlu should “look into those who betray their professions and leak secret documents” if he is looking for a mole.

“The method used by the CHP leader to cover the parties within his party is a low level for our politics,” read the statement.

Atalay also suggested that Kılıçdaroğlu look into the informer who leaked the false information to him if he wants to find real moles. “Accusing people with baseless claims is immoral. Kılıçdaroğlu is trying to cover up his in-house party difficulties.”

The Lighthouse probe was launched in Turkey after a Frankfurt court in 2008 convicted three managers of the Lighthouse e.V. charity in Germany for embezzling 40 million euros. Most of the money is believed to have ended up in Turkey in the coffers of the pro-government Kanal 7 television channel and a business group whose owners are close to the AKP.

‘EU also responsible’

The Lighthouse case was high on the agenda of a meeting between Kılıçdaroğlu and the co-chair of the Germany’s Greens, Claudia Roth, late on Oct. 9.

Roth denounced the removal of the three original prosecutors from the case as an open intervention into the judiciary, CHP sources said. In a pointed response, Kılıçdaroğlu said the EU was also responsible for the incident because of the support it gave to last year’s constitutional amendments that changed the structure of the Supreme Council of Judges and Prosecutors (HSYK).

“Europe did not hear our voice and backed the AKP [Justice and Development Party] in the referendum,” Kılıçdaroğlu was quoted as saying.

Roth voiced “serious concern” over freedom of press in Turkey, the sources said, adding that she also suggested that the CHP seek dialogue with the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) as part of efforts to resolve the Kurdish conflict.