Erdoğan slams case against Turkish national over scheme to evade US sanctions

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan slammed the U.S. on Saturday for an investigation into whether a Turkish national living in the U.S. tried to skirt sanctions aimed at Iran.

Reuters reported that Erdoğan has cast the U.S. efforts to prosecute gold trader Reza Zarrab as an attempt by the Trump administration to influence Turkey’s government.

U.S. courts “can never try my country,” Erdoğan told members of his ruling party on Saturday, according to Reuters.

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His comments come after Zarrab implicated top Turkish politicians, including Erdoğan himself, in the scheme to evade sanctions over three days of testimony.

Zarrab said Thursday that Erdoğan, when he was prime minister, had authorized a pair of Turkish banks to join the scheme.

Reports last month indicated that U.S. prosecutors were also pressing Zarrab to detail the relationship between Turkey and President Trump’s former national security adviser Michael Flynn.

Specifically, investigators were reportedly inquiring about whether Flynn was offered $15 million to ensure the extradition of a U.S.-based Turkish cleric whom Erdoğan suspects orchestrated a coup attempt in 2016.

Flynn pleaded guilty on Friday to lying to the FBI about his contacts with Russia as part of special counsel Robert Mueller’s ongoing investigation into possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Moscow.

Flynn announced that he would fully cooperate with Mueller’s investigation.

Erdoğan was said to have previously attempted to influence the case involving the Turkish-Iranian gold trader by lobbying former Vice President Joe Biden to fire then-U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara, who was overseeing the case at the time.

Biden denied the request, while Bharara was later fired by the Trump administration.

More than 150,000 Turkish citizens have lost their jobs or been suspended in Turkey in the wake of 2016’s coup attempt, and another 50,000 have been imprisoned.