US urged to drop case against Turkish businessman

By Merve Aydogan

ANKARA

Turkey on Monday called on the U.S. administration to drop a case involving Turkish businessman Riza Sarraf.

In an interview with private broadcaster 24 TV, Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Bekir Bozdag said: "I am asking those judging the case in the U.S.A., do you have correct evidences against Riza Sarraf or not.”

The Turkish businessman has been in jail in the U.S. pending trial. He was arrested last year on fraud and Iran sanctions-related charges.

The case "lacks legal grounds and must be dropped or terminated", the deputy premier said.

"In this case actually, there are no valid evidences in accordance with the American law,” he said. “There are no valid evidences because evidences against the law cannot be used."

Turkey recently launched a probe against U.S. prosecutors connected to the Sarraf case.

Istanbul prosecutors accused former U.S. Attorney for the southern district of New York Preet Bharara and Joon H. Kim, the district’s current acting attorney, of using information and documents from previous investigations in Turkey for an ongoing case in the U.S.

Bharara, who launched the probe into Sarraf, was fired on March 11, as part of a mass Trump administration expulsion of holdover U.S. attorneys.