Supreme Court approves acquittal of Deniz Feneri prosecutors

ISTANBUL

The 11th Penal Chamber of Supreme Court of Appeals has approved the decision to acquit three prosecutors who were removed from the Deniz Feneri (Lighthouse) investigation in August 2011 for alleged impropriety.

Nadi Türkaslan, Abdulvahap Yaren and Mehmet Tamöz were accused of misleading the authorities into seizing assets belonging to companies in which the suspects were shareholders, even though a court had rejected the measure.

They were separately acquitted on Nov. 16, 2012 by the Supreme Court of Appeals, but the case was then sent to the General Board of Criminal Department following an appeal.

The indictment was seeking a sentence of up to 11 years in prison for one of the accused prosecutors, Türkaslan, on charges of forgery of official documents and abuse of office. A prison sentence of up to three years was being sought for the other two, Yaren and Tamöz, for abuse of office. It also demanded that all three be banned from practicing their profession.

The investigation into the Deniz Feneri charity was launched in 2008 after a Frankfurt court convicted three managers of the Lighthouse e.V. charity in Germany for embezzling 40 million euros.