Prosecution requests time for discovery in Zarrab trial: Reports

“Just to give the court some context with respect to the discovery. It does involve several categories, primarily email documents, bank records, telephone records and the like,” Assistant U.S. Attorney in Manhattan Sid Kamaraju told the court, according to published copies of court minutes.

“We’re talking of hundreds of thousands of pages here, and we’ve discussed with defense counsel the best manner in which to provide it to them,” Kamaraju added, requesting the court to set the next trial after 30 days, which were deemed necessary to complete the discovery. 

The prosecutor pledged to provide the defense counsel with the necessary documents, after which Benjamin Brafman, Zarrab’s prominent New York-based lawyer, agreed to the court date. Brafman is best known for defending former International Monetary Fund (IMF) head Dominique Strauss-Khan against sexual assault charges. 

The documents will be sent to Zarrab’s lawyers ahead of the June 17 trial. 

Zarrab’s indictment was recently expanded to include crimes committed in Turkey, in addition to “the United Arab Emirates and elsewhere,” but sources from the attorney’s office declined to comment on whether an additional indictment was being prepared, Voice of America said.

Zarrab was arrested in the U.S. last month on charges that he conspired to conduct hundreds of millions of dollars in financial transactions for the Iranian government or other entities to evade U.S. sanctions. He is widely known in Turkey, as his name was embroiled in the Dec. 17-25, 2013, graft operations that involved four former Justice and Development Party (AKP) ministers and other state officials.