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‘Turkey must learn’: Duo ‘given thousands of years in jail for conspiring
on match-fixing charges against football giants’
6 Jun, 2021 22:41
Turkish football giants Fenerbahce have been at the center of a national scandal © Murad Sezer / Reuters
A media executive and a former police chief appear to have little prospect of ever leaving jail after reportedly being handed more than 1,000 years each in prison for allegedly plotting to level match fixing charges.
Hidayet Karaca, who was the head of the Samanyolu media group that was later shut down by the government, is said to have been given a whopping 1,406-year term after being accused of organizing the tapping of phone calls and forging of documents.
Ex-police chief Nazmi Ardic also copped 2,170 years on charges including forging documents and conspiring against the club alongside sentences for at least 25 other defendants, according to state-owned news agency Anadolu (via ESPN).
The case is said to relate to Aziz Yildirim, the ex-president of Turkish top-flight giants Fenerbahce, who was given six years in prison after being charged with match-fixing and forming an illegal operation, spending a year inside.
Yildirim denied the charges and said the case had been crafted to devastate the 19-time Turkish champions, who were barred from playing in European competitions for two seasons after the charges were leveled in 2011.
The case was subsequently reopened after prosecutors said it was based on a conspiracy. The prosecutors involved were linked to Fethullah Gulen, a US-based cleric who denies an accusation from Turkey that he attempted a coup in 2016.
Everything that goes wrong in Turkey is a conspiracy linked to Fethullah Gulen.
In the same year, an Istanbul prosecutor’s indictment alleged the charges were a plot by Gulen supporters who had infiltrated the Turkish judiciary and police to bring the club and its hierarchy to their knees.
ESPN reported that the prosecutors and judges who opened and ruled on the original case had fled the country following the coup attempt.
Fenerbahce chairman Ali Koc told reporters that Friday's court decision proved the club had been the innocent victim of a plot against it by Gulen's network and vowed to pursue legal avenues for "financial and moral" compensation.
"We wish we never had these days, but unfortunately they did happen," rued club attorney Naim Karakaya.
"The worst of lawlessness is structured by public power. In other words, what is done by law enforcement, by the police, by the judge and the prosecutor has always been much more dangerous, because they used public power for a personal or organizational purpose.
"In this respect, we demand that today's decision be a lesson to those who think that such an illegality will be used again, and that the public power will be used as a cover for the implementation of a plan that has been planned in such dark circles."
Koc warned that the club's hierarchy would retain "anger" and "resentment" until it deemed full justice to have been done.
"I look at this as the big picture," he said. "May god not show these days to Turkey once again.
"The fact that these people have so much power, that they are in a position to do whatever they want by infiltrating the capillaries of the state; from the military to the police, from the judiciary to many ministries, just as they are allowed, enough lessons should be learned from them.
"In order that this will never happen in our country, we, as the State of the Republic of Turkey, need to learn our lessons from what has happened here, so that our children and grandchildren do not waste energy and engage in this work again.
"I'm not sure how many lessons we've learned so that it won't happen again."
South Africa’s health minister placed on leave until further notice
amid corruption investigation
8 Jun, 2021 16:07
The South African health minister has been put on special leave until further notice by the country’s President Cyril Ramaphosa, while the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) examines allegations of corruption.
Minister Zweli Mkhize said he had requested time away from his post while the investigation is ongoing, and asked to be temporarily replaced so he could fight the allegations of corruption levelled against him.
“We have not discussed the issue of resignation. We have discussed the issue of special leave pending the report of the SIU,” Mkhize said on Tuesday, after speaking to the country’s president.
Mkhize is under investigation by the SIU over a contract awarded by his department to a company called Digital Vibes, which is run by his former personal assistant, Tahera Mather, and former secretary, Naadhira Mitha.
The contract was granted in 2019 for work on South Africa’s National Health Insurance, with the agreement more recently extended for activity responding to the Covid pandemic. However, concerns about the legitimacy of the agreement were raised in December 2020 with the nation’s auditor-general.
An investigation subsequently conducted into the contract established it had been irregularly awarded, violating the Public Finance Management Act.
Mkhize has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing and claimed he did not personally benefit from the contract. While he has told the media that he is willing to participate in the investigation, Mkhize refused to appear before the South African parliament’s health committee last week over the allegations, claiming his legal team had advised against it until the SIU has concluded its assessment.
The special investigators are expected to have completed their report by the end of June, according to local reports.
Ramaphosa’s decision to accept Mkhize’s request to take leave was made after members of the African National Congress party called on the South African president to urgently address the growing scandal.
More than 1,000 people arrested in China over allegations of money laundering
using cryptocurrencies
10 Jun, 2021 10:11
© Getty Images / Jirapong Manustrong
Chinese authorities have arrested 1,100 individuals in a coordinated attempt to crack down on a network of criminals who illegally launder money by purchasing cryptocurrencies, as the nation clamps down on the digital industry.
The Chinese Ministry of Public Security announced the detention of the 1,100 criminals in a statement released on Wednesday, revealing the latest move by authorities as China continues to target the cryptocurrency industry.
Police allege that the network of criminals used cryptocurrencies to launder illegally obtained money on behalf of clients, receiving a commission from the proceeds for their work. Authorities have not stated how much money was involved in the criminal operation.
Some areas of China, including Inner Mongolia and Qinghai, have banned cryptocurrency mining, believing that the activity violates annual energy consumption targets.
As it stands, bitcoin mines in China are behind around 80% of the entire global trade in cryptocurrencies, making the nation a key part of the process in the digital industry. Despite this, Chinese authorities have targeted crypto over concerns about its involvement in illegal activities, including money laundering.
The Asian region also accounts for eight percent of the computing power required to run the global blockchain used to record and facilitate bitcoin transactions – a greater amount than the entire United States.
Earlier this year, China formally banned cryptocurrency exchanges and initial coin offerings in the country, as well as preventing financial institutions and payment companies from offering services linked to the digital currency transactions. This follows a 2019 ban on the domestic trading of cryptocurrencies. Chinese citizens are not currently prohibited from owning cryptocurrencies themselves.
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