No: 4, 4 January 2018, Press Release regarding the decision of the Court of Southern District of New York about Mehmet Hakan Atilla

It is an unjust and unfortunate development that the Deputy Director General of Halkbank was found guilty by the jury on five counts of the six charges in the case that was initiated on the superseding indictment No. SR 15 Cr.867 (RMB) prepared by the Office of the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York.

Based on the so-called “evidence”, which are forged and susceptible to political manipulation, and dwelling on Turkey’s internal affairs on a fictitious basis, the U.S. court has been drawn into Turkey’s domestic affairs in an unprecedented way.

Meanwhile, the reliability and the credibility of the trial has vanished, since some members of the Fetullahist Terrorist Organization (FETO), who received financial and logistical support from the US, were granted the opportunity to make unsubstantiated allegations and provide fabricated evidence to the court to obstruct a fair trial.

Our heartfelt wish is the correction of the said decision, which has clearly turned into a judicial shame.