Two ministers' sons, Iranian businessman arrested in graft probe

Salih Kaan Çağlayan, the son of Economy Minister Zafer Çağlayan, and Barış Güler, the son of Interior Minister Muammer Güler, as well as Halkbank General Director Süleyman Aslan and Zarrab are among 16 people arrested early on Saturday. Eight people were arrested late on Thursday.

During the investigation, Zarrab told the prosecution that he donates to many charities and sent Halkbank General Director Aslan 500,000 euros from his own account for the construction of an imam-hatip school in Osmancık, a district in Çorum province. Denying allegations that he had bribed Minister Çağlayan, Zarrab said he once hosted the minister in his house.

He estimated that the total sum of gold trading he has conducted is around TL 20 billion. He also noted that the daily amount of his gold trade is around one ton. Zarrab also denied claims that he had bribed a minister to forge false documents to let a ULS Airlines Cargo plane fly to Dubai after a police inspection found nearly 1.5 tons of gold loaded on it.

Zarrab confirmed that the transactions were mainly conducted through Halkbank until July, when a new set of US sanctions placed restrictions on gold trade. “We were no longer able to do this trade via Halkbank so we started to do it as food trade,” he said.

Zarrab refuted allegations of giving bribes to Interior Minister Güler to naturalize his family members in return for $1 million each. He said he spoke to Güler to learn about the legal process and did not ask for any favors. “Even the process of naturalization took longer than normal. Let me draw your attention to the fact that the approval of all the members of the Cabinet is required. Even the signatures of the prime minister and the president are necessary. They cut the recordings and didn't include what really needs to be known [in the surveillance records],” Zarrab claimed.

Zarrab said a deputy police chief, O.İ., had asked him for a bribe of $1 million, for which he had filed a criminal complaint. He said this denunciation was not included in the investigation files.

He also accused a business writer in the Yeni Şafak newspaper of asking for $1 million in exchange for not running a story about him, noting that he has voice recordings to prove it. Yeni Şafak, on the other hand, released a voice recording of their phone conversations to refute the claim.

Aslan, from whose house $4.5 million stashed in shoe boxes was seized, said he was holding on to the money for charity. “When Zarrab told about his philanthropic plan, I thought of the Osmancık imam-hatip high school,” he said, arguing that Zarrab had told him to take over the expenses of the school.

Barış Güler told the police he knows Zarrab as a philanthropist and a respected man. “It is out of the question that I conducted business in exchange for bribes,” Güler said, denying allegations that he had asked for the removal of a police officer from a post. He said as someone who has had a bodyguard appointed by the police for 11 years, every step he took was known by the National Police Department.

Salih Kaan Çağlayan also spoke to the police about his relationship with Zarrab, whose wife is well-known Turkish singer Ebru Gündeş. Saying he is just friends with Zarrab, Salih Kaan Çağlayan said Gündeş performed during his wedding and only charged him for her expenses instead of making a profit. He also said Zarrab had given him a suit and a suitcase which he liked because of their friendship.

On Thursday, 49 suspects, including Mustafa Demir, the mayor of İstanbul's Fatih district, and Barış Güler, were referred to court for arrest after being detained. However, 19 suspects, including Demir, were released on Saturday pending trial while two suspects were arrested.

The suspects are accused of rigging state tenders, accepting and facilitating the payment of bribes for major urbanization projects, obtaining construction permits for protected areas in exchange for money, helping foreigners obtain Turkish citizenship with falsified documentation, being involved in export fraud, forging documents and smuggling gold. There are also claims that the suspects illegally sold historic artifacts that were unearthed during excavations for the Marmaray underwater rail project that connects Europe and Asia.

Businessman and construction mogul Ali Ağaoğlu was among the 23 people who were set free on Thursday while 14 suspects were arrested.

With the arrest of 16 people early on Friday, the total number of arrests has reached 24.

Three suspects who are considered civil servants, including O.K., the chief of staff of Minister Çağlayan, were sent to Paşakapısı Prison. Businessman Zarrab and the two ministers' sons were sent to Metris Prison following a health check at Haseki Hospital. Halkbank General Director Aslan was sent to Silivri Prison.

Meanwhile, several of the suspects confessed to bribery during their interviews. Abdullah Happani, the general director of Zarrab's company, said on Friday night during his interview that they had made unusual payments to certain names in addition to legal payments under the instructions of Zarrab. Stating that he was not able to question those illegal payments because Zarrab was his employer, Happani said the forged documents were related to issuing flight permissions for Zarrab's private plane, which is irrelevant to him.

On the other hand, the son of Environment and Urban Planning Minister Erdoğan Bayraktar, Abdullah Oğuz Bayraktar, who was released pending trial by the court on Saturday, argued that taped conversations with his friends including bribery talk were not serious, but part of jokes he made to his friends.