A controversial prosecutor, who led probes into alleged coup attempts, has fled to Armenia with a colleague after an arrest warrant was issued regarding both judicial figures, the governor of Turkey’s Artvin Province has announced, reported Hürriyet Daily News of Turkey.
According to the daily, the Bakırköy Chief Prosecutor’s Office in Istanbul issued an arrest warrant on former prosecutors Zekeriya Öz, Celal Kara and Mehmet Yüzgeç, accusing them of attempting to overthrow the government forcefully and forming a criminal organization.
Öz was dismissed as the Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor on May 12 this year after being rotated to a minor judiciary position, following his launch of the country’s biggest corruption investigation on December 17, 2013, in which government figures and their relatives, as well as several prominent businessmen, were implicated.
The Supreme Board of Judges and Prosecutors (HSYK), Turkey’s top judicial body, had fired all three prosecutors on May 12, as well as prosecutor Muammer Akkaş and judge Süleyman Karaçöl, who also took part in the corruption investigation.
Öz left Turkey together with Kara early Monday, hours before arrest warrants were issued.
Daily Hürriyet has learned that Ankara contacted authorities in Georgia, where Öz and Kara initially entered, to seek their extradition.
But Tuesday’s announcement by Kemal Cirit, the governor of Turkey’s northeastern Artvin Province, revealed that Öz and Kara had crossed the border into Armenia, reported Hürriyet Daily News.
The National Security Service of Armenia, however, told Armenian News-NEWS.am that they have no such information.
source: news-am