Türkiye: Erdogan confidant arrested after stock market scandal

Istanbul. Long-time close ally of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and former deputy AKP leader Fatma Betül Sayan Kaya has been arrested. The Istanbul public prosecutor's office is investigating her for "violating the Capital Markets Act" and "membership in a criminal organization," the state news agency Anadolu reported.

In connection with a billion-dollar stock market scandal, Erdogan announced to journalists on Thursday that he would hold accountable those who made unlawful profits and manipulated the capital markets. “We will rid our capital markets of these germs,” he said.

Sayan Kaya resigned from her position in the AKP at the end of September after the stock market scandal and accusations against her from the opposition became known. In mid-September, suspected price manipulation by investment funds triggered a stock market crisis, whereupon the financial regulator ordered the liquidation of 131 funds and a winding-up process was initiated. Around 455,000 investors are said to be affected, followed by investigations, dismissals in the financial supervisory authority and in the Ministry of Finance as well as numerous arrests, including by the deposed Istanbul stock exchange boss Korkmaz Enes Ergun.

At the beginning of November, Justice Minister Akin Gürlek said that investigations into the stock market scandal had shown that it was not just a simple stock market fraud, but “a comprehensive criminal organization”. The opposition does not view the case as a possible individual crime, but as a question of political responsibility and control within the AKP.

During the first interrogation in early October, Sayan Kaya and her husband denied the allegations. She stated that she had made her own investment decisions and had not received any confidential information.