Questions mount over fate of US-detained Turkish mogul

pulse

November 17, 2017 12:02 AM

Speculation is mounting over the whereabouts of a Turkish-Iranian gold mogul and whether he will stand trial as scheduled in New York on charges of defying US sanctions on Iran.

Neither Reza Zarrab, 34, nor his lawyer attended a court hearing in Manhattan on Thursday to discuss the case ahead of the trial. Jury selection is scheduled to begin on Monday next week and opening statements on November 27.

In his absence, there are mounting press reports in the United States that Zarrab may now be cooperating with US authorities in search of a plea bargain deal.

Previously held at the Metropolitan Correctional Center, the Bureau of Prisons database lists him has having been released on November 8.

He was "still in federal custody," a spokesman for the US prosecutors office told AFP.

"Keep your eyes on the docket," District Judge Richard Berman replied when the lawyer co-defendant Mehmet Akan Attila asked whether Zarrab would be at the trial.

The businessman's lawyer Ben Brafman, one of the most prominent defense attorneys in the United States, also declined to comment.

Zarrab's name surfaced last week in US media reports about US President Donald Trump's former national security advisor Michael Flynn.

Flynn, already a key person of interest in an investigation into Russian meddling in the US election, is also reportedly being investigated for alleged talks with Turkey on deporting Zarrab and a dissident Turkish cleric, in exchange for money.

Special prosecutor Robert Mueller is examining a meeting between Flynn and senior Turkish officials weeks after Trump won the presidential election, NBC News and the Wall Street Journal reported.

The meeting allegedly involved discussion of paying up to $15 million if Flynn could engineer the deportation to Turkey of Fethullah Gulen, a political rival to the Turkish president, as well as help free Zarrab from prison.

Turkey and Flynn's lawyers have denied any such negotiations.

Ankara accuses Gulen of being behind a failed 2016 coup aimed at unseating President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, charges the cleric denies.

The Turkish foreign ministry said Wednesday it had asked the United States for information about Zarrab's whereabouts, and was waiting a response.

Zarrab's arrest by US authorities in March 2016, after flying with his pop star wife and daughter to Miami on holiday, angered Erdogan and has been a source of Turkish-US friction.

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