Fethullah Gülen’s Lawyers: Gülen Movement Has No Link With Zarrab Case In US


Date posted: November 29, 2017

The lawyers of US-based Turkish Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen said on Tuesday that the Gülen movement has no link to the case of Iranian-Turkish businessman Reza Zarrab in the US.

In a statement from @fgulenav Twitter account on Tuesday, Gülen’s lawyers has said that the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) government under the rule of Turkish autocratic President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and news reports in the pro-Erdoğan media aim at associating the Iranian gold trader Reza Zarrab case carried out by the US Federal Judiciary to the Gülen movement.

Gülen’s lawyers said that “Gülen movement is a civic movement that embraces universal human values and the rule of law, and its sole attitude regarding the judicial process in Turkey or any country in the world, is demanding a trial according to the Universal Declaration and the European Convention on Human Rights. Apart from that, there cannot be any expectation or request.”

Reza Zarrab, a Turkish-Iranian gold trader whose prosecution in Manhattan has drawn sharp criticism from President Erdoğan, has pleaded guilty and has been cooperating with the American authorities, a federal prosecutor disclosed in court on Tuesday, according to a report by the New York Times.

Zarrab was the prime suspect in a major corruption investigation, which had also incriminated the his cabinet ministers and President Erdoğan’s family members, became public in December 17/25, 2013.  Turkish prosecutors accused Zarrab and high-ranking Turkish officials of involvement in facilitating Iranian money transfers via gold smuggling, leaked documents at the time showed.

President Erdoğan, then prime minister, cast that investigation as a coup attempt orchestrated by his political enemies. Several Turkish prosecutors were removed from the case, police investigators were reassigned, and the investigation was later dropped.

However, 9 people including Zarrab, Turkey’s Halkbank Deputy General Manager Mehmet Hakan Atilla, Turkish Economy Minister Mehmet Zafer Çağlayan and former Halkbank General Manager Süleyman Aslan have been criminally charged with conspiring to violate US sanctions on Iran in the case in New York.

Source: Stockholm Center for Freedom , November 28, 2017

Tags: | | | |


Related News

Erdoğan calls critics, civil movements ‘traitors,’ threatens investors

Graham Watson, the president of the European Liberal Democrat and Reform Party and the former chairman of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe in the EP also criticized Erdoğan for using hate speech against Hizmet.

Joint mosque-cemevi project will contribute to peace in Turkey

Protests against a joint mosque-cemevi (Alevi house of worship) complex project are meaningless because the project will help alleviate tensions between Alevis and Sunnis in Turkey, Alevi community leaders said on Monday. During the groundbreaking ceremony of the complex in Ankara on Sunday, a group of nearly 500 people protested against the project, clashing with […]

Conference declares gov’t needs to be more active in preventing domestic violence

İPEK ÜZÜM, İSTANBUL The government should take a more active role in preventing domestic violence — which is on the rise across Turkey and the world — stated the final declaration of the conference on violence and society organized by the Journalists and Writers Foundation‘s (GYV) Women’s Platform between Nov. 24 and 26 in İstanbul. […]

Yes, Love Is a Verb!

Because of his [Fethullah Gulen] influence…at risk children are now being educated in hundreds of countries…The sick are being treated…..and the starving are fed….often at great personal risk..

Dehumanize me Turkish-style — no comment

Following the Dec. 17 and 25 corruption investigations implicating Cabinet ministers and senior members of the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) government, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, his inner circle and pro-AK Party media have launched a concerted, collective and comprehensive dehumanization strategy against Fethullah Gülen and the Hizmet movement. What follows is a snippet of the type of language used without comment, as comment is not needed.

UN slams Thailand, Myanmar over deportation of Turk

The United Nations expressed grave concern on Saturday over the deportation by Myanmar and Thailand of a Turkish national over alleged connections to a July 2016 coup attempt against Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Muhammet is at least the sixth person to be deported from Southeast Asia over alleged connections to Gulen’s movement, the UN said.

Latest News

Turkish inmate jailed over alleged Gülen links dies of heart attack in prison

Message of Condemnation and Condolences for Mass Shooting at Bondi Beach, Sydney

Media executive Hidayet Karaca marks 11th year in prison over alleged links to Gülen movement

ECtHR faults Turkey for convictions of 2,420 applicants over Gülen links in follow-up to 2023 judgment

New Book Exposes Erdoğan’s “Civil Death Project” Targeting the Hizmet Movement

European Human Rights Treaty Faces Legal And Political Tests

ECtHR rejects Turkey’s appeal, clearing path for retrials in Gülen-linked cases

Erdoğan’s Civil Death Project’ : The ‘politicide’ spanning more than a decade

Fethullah Gülen’s Vision and the Purpose of Hizmet

In Case You Missed It

The Anatolians are coming

Pundits: plans to close down Turkish schools abroad arbitrary, political vandalism

An International Conference on “Philanthropy and Peacebuilding”

Pro-gov’t journalist proposes torturing jailed Gülen followers to force them to talk

Exit from a well 1,915 meters deep

An Interview with Fethullah Gülen

12-year-old denied departure from Turkey for treatment in Cuba dies of cancer

Copyright 2026 Hizmet News