Roundup: Ankara accuses gold trader case of Gulenist "plot" against Turkey

ANKARA, Nov. 30 (Xinhua) -- The Turkish government said on Thursday that a U.S. court trial on Turkish-Iranian gold trader Reza Zarrab, who is charged with conspiring to evade U.S. sanctions on Iran, is a "plot" against Ankara and the credibility of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan as well as his government ahead of 2019 elections.

"The objective of this trial is to destroy their credibility and to harm in the eyes of the Turkish and world public opinion," Deputy Prime Minister Bekir Bozdag told Anadolu Agency.

"This is just a beginning. We will hear more such kind of slanders as we go to polls in 2019," he said, referring to presidential and parliamentary polls in which Erdogan plans to assume full executive powers after an approved constitutional amendment changed the administration to presidential system.

In an ongoing court case in New York, the key witness Reza Zarrab has pleaded guilty and begun to cooperate with the U.S. prosecutors.

On Wednesday, Zarrab started testifying on how he bypassed the sanctions on Iran through the gas-for-gold scheme in Turkey and bribed senior Turkish government officials.

The businessman said he helped Iran, during the term of former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, by using funds deposited in Turkey's state-owned Halkbank to buy gold which was smuggled to Dubai and sold for cash.

Mehmet Hakan Atilla, a former senior official of Halkbank, is the sole defendant charged with being part of the operation that bypassed U.S. anti-Iran sanctions in 2011-2013.

Local media said Zarrab was concerned about his own safety in Turkey after his Iranian partner Babak Zanjani was sentenced to death in Iran, and made contact with U.S. authorities to escape there. The gold trader was immediately arrested on his arrival in Florida last year.

Meanwhile, the Turkish government is taking a defensive position, saying the case was fabricated for political reasons.

The Turkish-Iranian businessman Zarrab was kept as "hostage" in the U.S. and he was forced to testify against the Turkish government, ruling Justice and Development Party's (AKP) spokesman Mahir Unal said Thursday.

"Some circles try to put pressure on Turkey on both political and economic terms using this trial," Unal noted.

The Turkish government suggests the case has links with the Gulen Movement, which Ankara accuses of being behind a failed coup attempt in 2016.

"Both the judge and prosecutor of the case have close links with the Gulen Movement," Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Bozdag said, noting that the "illegal" evidence was fabricated by the group led by Islamic scholar Fetullah Gulen, who has been living in self-imposed exile in the U.S. since 1999.

The Turkish government also points to the evidence "illegally obtained and fabricated" through wiretappings by Gulenist police officers and prosecutors infiltrated into the country.

On Nov. 18, Istanbul Chief Prosecutor's Office launched a probe for Preet Bharara, former U.S. Attorney in charge of Zarrab's case, and Joon H. Kim, acting U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, over the evidence used in trial of Turkish citizens. Enditem