Erdogan sues opposition leader over alleged offshore money transfers

ANKARA, Dec. 1 (Xinhua) -- Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan launched Friday a 1.5 million-lira (380,000 U.S. dollars) lawsuit against Kemal Kilicdaroglu, head of the main opposition People's Republican Party (CHP).

On Tuesday, Kilicdaroglu presented banking documents in a parliamentary meeting, accusing Erdogan's close circle of transferring U.S. dollars to an offshore company, in order to "either launder money or evade tax."

Erdogan's ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) dismissed the documents as "fake," saying they should either be revealed fully to the public or handed to prosecutors for further investigation.

The lawsuit comes amid an ongoing trial in New York, where a Turkish-Iranian businessman is charged with violating sanctions on Iran by paying millions of dollars in bribes to a Turkish former minister. Enditem