Ankara Chief Prosecutor’s Office announced on Sunday that an investigation had been launched into alleged wrongdoing by Mustafa Erdem, a lawmaker for the main opposition New Party (YP).
Erdem’s name came up in digital correspondence involving a suspect captured during a counternarcotics operation in the capital earlier this week.
Authorities said Erdem would be investigated for bribery. The correspondence, allegedly between the drug operation suspect and Erdem, indicates that the lawmaker had a $5 million (TL 244.71 million) deal with the man, reportedly over a forensic report intended to help arrested Antalya Mayor Muhittin Böcek. Erdem left the opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), of which Böcek is also a member, after the YP was founded in July by the CHP’s former chair, Özgür Özel. Erdem’s constituency is based in Antalya, where Böcek was arrested last year on charges of widespread corruption. Earlier, Böcek had admitted to secretly sending a substantial amount of cash to CHP headquarters and Özel as a bribe to secure his candidacy in the previous municipal elections.
The correspondence, purportedly between Erdem and A.B., who had links to organized crime, according to Turkish media, shows A.B. swearing at the lawmaker and claiming that Erdem had “defrauded” him by failing to pay a “promised” bribe. In a statement Saturday, Erdem acknowledged that he had corresponded with A.B. as well as M.E., another suspect in the case, but said he had only sought legal counsel to see whether Böcek’s imprisonment could be converted to house arrest due to the mayor’s health problems. He denied offering money to either man and claimed he was threatened by people he did not know after his contact with M.E.
