Accused firm sues Kılıçdaroğlu over evidence in money transfer claims

A lawyer for the Bellway Limited Company said Thursday that receipts and SWIFT codes shown by Republican People's Party (CHP) Chairman Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu regarding alleged money transfers made by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's relatives to an overseas account are fake, and the company is now suing Kılıçdaroğlu for defamation.

Speaking to Anadolu Agency (AA), Turan Öner, a lawyer for Bellway Limited Company, said after their company's name was mentioned in Kılıçdaroğlu's speech on Tuesday, they examined the documents revealed by the CHP leader as proof of alleged money transfers made by some of Erdoğan's relatives to the company and found no records of it.

"After our investigation into our records, we can confirm that such money transfers were never wired to our accounts," Öner said, adding that they filed a lawsuit with the Istanbul Public Prosecutor's Office claiming the documents were forged using their company's name.

In a press conference on Friday, CHP spokesman, Deputy Chairman Bülent Tezcan showed the documents to correspondents, asserting that the documents are original and provethe transactions to be real.

Justice and Development Party (AK Party) spokesman Mahir Ünal said the documents presented by Tezcan are irrelevant to the issue and do not attest to Kılıçdaroğlu's claim of sending money to accounts abroad.

"The public prosecutor's office demanded the documents [from the CHP]. Since their content is not known by us, we regard it as fake," he said. On Friday, President Erdoğan and his relatives filed suit against opposition the CHP chairman seeking $380,000 in compensation.

During his party's parliamentary meeting on Tuesday, Kılıçdaroğlu revealed alleged documentation of transactions worth millions of dollars made by Erdoğan's relatives to a bank account on the Isle of Man.Erdoğan denied Kılıçdaroğlu's accusations, saying he does not have any bank accounts abroad and that Kılıçdaroğlu should resign "if he can't prove his claims." At the same time, Erdoğan said if Kılıçdaroğlu's claims turned out to be true, he would step down as president.

Speaking after Kılıçdaroğlu's claims, AK Party Deputy Chairman Bülent Turan said Kılıçdaroğlu had misrepresented regular commercial documents as illegal transactions. "He misrepresented official transactions as [illegal] documents. Now, he should resign his post," he said. AK Party officials also reiterated that Kılıçdaroğlu needs to give the documents to prosecutors in order to shed light on the issue, but CHP officials have not handed over the documents yet.