17 arrest orders issued in money laundering investigation linked to Sargul.. and 15 detained so far

The Istanbul Public Prosecution issued 17 arrest warrants within the ongoing investigation into money laundering linked to the member of parliament for Erzincan, Mustafa Sargul, and his family. Fifteen of the suspects have actually been detained, while security forces continue searching for the remaining two.

The charges against the suspects include membership in a criminal organization, money laundering, and bribery. The investigations center on allegations of laundering huge sums of unknown origin through local and foreign companies. The two German complainants, K.B. and M.B., claimed the existence of an investment contract worth 80 million euros and a transfer of 100 million euros, in addition to a claim that Mustafa Sargul promised to smuggle a fund worth 1 billion euros abroad through his official influence. The files also point to a deal to sell a yali (a waterfront mansion) valued at about 32 million euros linked to Emir Sargul, with the allegation that 100 million euros was transferred from abroad as its price, but the transfer was halted by a foreign bank on the grounds that it was suspicious. It is also alleged that a yacht registered in the British registry was transferred to Emir Sargul in order to lift a lien, but the two complainants affirm that the price of the yacht was not paid and that the banking lien problem was not resolved.

In the context of the same file, the two complainants stated that they had handed over documents and evidence related to the case to the journalist Murat Agirel, before they were threatened by the family, as they claim. Agirel, who is on the list of detainees, denied any involvement in the violations, stressing that he had sought to verify the allegations as part of his journalistic work, and that he had refrained from publishing some of the documents because of his doubts about their authenticity, saying: "I am at best a witness in this file, not a suspect."

Mustafa's son, Emir Sargul, had been released on November 4 under judicial control measures in the form of house arrest, after he stated in a supplementary statement dated October 30 that his father had given money to the leader of the "New Party", Ozgur Ozel, which Ozel and his party's leaders denied. Reports indicate that the most recent arrest came in connection with a statement given on November 11.

The prosecution referred the file of charges relating to Mustafa Sargul personally, including establishing a criminal organization, sexual exploitation of a minor, aggravated rape, and money laundering, to the Ankara Public Prosecution. The total number of detainees currently in this file stands at 27 people, among them Omer Sargul, Aylin Kotil, Volkan Aslanbas, Murat Agirel, and others.