By Betul Yuruk & Ovunc Kutlu
NEW YORK
Mehmet Hakan Atilla, the former deputy CEO of Turkey’s state-run lender Halkbank, testified Friday, the 14th day of the trial in New York.
In his testimony, Atilla said he had not given false testimony to the FBI and "never" offered or accepted a bribe involving Turkish businessman Riza Sarraf.
In reply to defense attorney Cathy Fleming, Atilla said a wiretap of a call allegedly between him and Sarraf was actually held between Sarraf and another banker Hakan Aydogan.
Atilla said he was on a plane to Barcelona with no phone service the afternoon of April 10, 2013, the time of the phone call.
His testimony was confirmed by documents from Turkish Airlines showing that Atilla and his family were on the flight without phones.
"I never lied to FBI," said Atilla, who also said "never" answering questions by Fleming asking "Did you ever conspire with Reza Zarrab to evade sanctions or forge documents?"
Atilla said he was not the architect of a scheme of violations of U.S. sanctions.
When asked about his family, Atilla burst into tears and said he had not seen his family for 269 days.
Turkish businessman Sarraf was detained last year on charges of violating sanctions against Iran while Atilla was arrested in the U.S. earlier this year on similar sanctions and violations charges.
FETO fugitive Korkmaz's involving
During the Wednesday session of the hearing, defense lawyers appealed to the court to revoke the case Korkmaz, who testified in the case against Atilla, “submitted stolen ” and “testified wrongly” when they submitted a bill of exception.
However, on Friday, in the afternoon session of the hearing, the court rejected defense lawyers' appeal.
Richard Berman, the judge in the case, demanded the prosecution submit a petition which explains where and how the evidence Korkmaz has, came from.
Korkmaz, whose questioning continued at the beginning of the morning session, said he obtained the evidence related to the Dec. 17 investigation in six separate dates after he was dismissed from the financial office.
Remarking that he had visited the prosecutor, whom he submitted the evidence related to the investigation, on Dec. 25, 2017, Korkmaz said he wanted to keep the evidence as well and duplicated them, which he took from the prosecutor in compact disk (CD), in his flash and hard disks.
Korkmaz had also said he visited the prosecutor in question twice more towards the end of Jan. 2014, and took the – in a scanned form-- and the photographs found during the police search, later transferred them to flash disk.
Mentioning his visit to the prosecutor, who was dismissed from , in Feb. 2014 and his house in July 2014, Korkmaz had said he took the documents scanned earlier and digital versions of missing reports during these visits.
Korkmaz added that he obtained an evidence from an officer, who was expert in the dossier, in June 2016. Korkmaz also said he made the first contact with American prosecutors via his lawyer.
Later, Todd Harrison, one of the lawyers of Atilla, had gotten unanswered when he asked Korkmaz, who describes the in the indictment prepared against him in Turkey as “unfounded”:
“Then, how can the you got illegally in Turkey be used against my client Mr. Atilla?
Gulen's signature ordering FETO members to be freed
On Friday, Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor said documents and digital materials confiscated from a former staffer at a newspaper linked to Terrorist Organization (FETO constitute “concrete evidence” of a 2015 plot to free FETO members including Korkmaz from prison.
The documents bear Gulen's signature ordering FETO members in the Turkish judiciary to release some top FETO detainees.
After receiving the order from Gulen, on April 25, 2015, then-judges and alleged FETO members Mustafa Baser and Metin Ozcelik released all 63 FETO suspects.
The 10th Criminal Court of Peace in Istanbul ruled against the release order that same night and stopped the group from being freed.
But Korkmaz fled to the U.S. after being released in February 2016.
FETO and its U.S.-based leader Gulen orchestrated the July 15, defeated coup attempt, which left 250 people martyred and nearly 2,200 others wounded.
The group is accused of a long-running campaign to overthrow the state through the infiltration of Turkish institutions, particularly the military, police, and judiciary.
