Mehmet Hakan Atilla was convicted on five of the six counts he faced, including charges pertaining to bank fraud and conspiracy to violate US sanctions law. He was found not guilty on a money laundering charge. US District Judge Richard Berman at the federal court in New York said that Atilla would be sentenced on April 11.

The jury found that Atilla had operated a complex scheme in which Iran traded its oil and gas for gold, with some of the revenue being moved through US financial institutions without their knowledge.

"Foreign banks and bankers have a choice: you can choose willfully to help Iran and other sanctioned nations evade US law, or you can choose to be part of the international banking community transacting in US dollars," Joon Kim, the acting US attorney in Manhattan, said in a statement after the verdict. "But you can't do both."

After the Iranian hostage crisis, in which 52 Americans were held captive from 1979 to 1981, the US imposed sanctions on virtually all US financial dealings with Iran, including many bank transactions.

Iran-based Azerbaijani businessman and gold trader Reza Zarrab made the front pages of Turkish papers

Links to the highest echelons of the Turkish government

Prosecutors accused Atilla, an executive at Turkey's majority state-owned Halkbank,of conspiring with Turkish-Iranian gold trader Reza Zarrab and others to help Iran escape sanctions by using fraudulent gold and food transactions.

Zarrab, the prosecution's star witness, admitted to running the deals with Iran and testified that

he had paid over $50 million (€43 million) in bribes to Turkey's finance minister in 2012 to help advance the scheme, adding that he believed Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan knew about the plot.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan claims that the accusations against Atilla are fabricated, and that the Gulen movement instigated behind the plot

Erdogan has dismissed the case as a politically motivated attack on his government. A Turkish government official rejected the verdict.

"We consider this verdict void in every sense; international law has been violated," an official who declined to be named told the Reuters news agency. "It cannot have a negative impact on the Turkish economy, banking system or Halkbank, specifically."

"Our greatest wish is that this conviction, which in this form is a perversion of justice, will be corrected," Turkey's Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

The case had gained major traction in Turkey not only of its collusion claims but also because of Reza Zarrab's marriage to one of the country's most celebrated singers, Ebru Gundes.

Legal expert Ugur Poyraz told DW that Atilla could also plead guilty and agree to cooperate with prosecutors in a bid to reduce his punishment, as Zarrab did in November.

"For example, it is possible for him to think like that: 'If I had shared some information about certain issues, I would have got a reduced sentence or even impunity. Then why don't I share these information with the prosecutors or the court now and escape with a reduced sentence?"

The case drew a great deal of attention in Turkey - partly because of Reza Zarrab's marriage to Turkish singer Ebru Gundes (right)

Turkey accuses Gulenists of plot

Ankara has said that followers of US-based cleric Fethullah Gulen were behind the Turkish investigation and the US case. They have also accused Gulen, an erstwhile ally of Erdogan's, of being the main instigator behind the 2016 failed coup in Turkey. Gulen has denied all accusations and remains in self-imposed exile in the US-state of Pennsylvania as Turkey continues to seek his extradition.

Before the trial, Erdogan had reportedly pressed US President Donald Trump to quell the investigation and strongly criticized Washington, calling the case a "plot" aimed at hurting Turkey.

Turkey rejects the verdicts

Turkey's deputy Prime Minister Bekir Bozdag took to Twitter to describe the trial as a "political conspiracy" in which the verdict had "been delivered before hearings even started."

Bozdag added in another tweet that he wasn't surprised about the verdict and that it was of "no legal value to Turkey."

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's spokesman Ibrahim Kalin meanwhile said "this is a scandalous verdict in a scandalous trial."

Halkbank also issued a statement, distancing itself from the trial:

"As well as our bank not being a party to the trial, no administrative or financial decision has been taken against our bank," it said, adding that the all of the bank's transactions were "transparent" and "always in compliance with universally valid and international standards."

Halkbank has distanced itself from the trial, saying that all its dealings were conducted in accordance to international banking standards

Appeals expected

Victor Rocco, one of Atilla's lawyers, said the banker would appeal the verdict if it is not overturned by District Judge Berman.

"We believe he's innocent," Rocco said. "We intend, and he intends, most importantly, to continue to fight and clear his name."

During the trial, Rocco said his client had been a "hapless and helpless pawn" caught up in a conspiracy that had been created by his boss at Halkbank and Zarrab. "There's something bigger going on here," he said. "There's something going on I don't understand."

"He understands it's only round one," said another defense lawyer in the case, Cathy Fleming.

Critical caricatures from Turkey A dumbfounded Angela Merkel In 2015, the cover of the Turkish satire magazine LeMan depicted the German chancellor with a puzzled look on her face, sitting next to the Turkish President Erdogan wearing a sultan's attire. She wonders, "Where in the world have I landed?" LeMan is one of Istanbul's three leading satire magazines. Turkey's Prime Minister Davutoglu once called it "immoral."

Critical caricatures from Turkey Imprisoned activists The failed coup in July 2016 fundamentally changed Turkey. Since then, 150,000 people have suddenly lost their positions and 40,000 have been imprisoned - journalists, authors, activists. Many of them are held in detention awaiting a trial that's never held. The drawing shown above, by 66-year-old cartoonist Izel Rozental, dealt with this issue in August 2016.

Critical caricatures from Turkey Gülen is everywhere Erdogan has accused Fethullah Gülen of plotting the attempted coup, and has since persecuted alleged members of the exiled cleric's movement. Cartoonist Yigit Özgür has caricatured the fact that many Turks believe Erdogan's exaggerated blanket accusations: One man says, "90 percent of all water melons are said to be Gülen followers." "Hmmm, could be," replies the other.

Critical caricatures from Turkey Critical voices unwanted With 51.3 percent Yes votes, the constitutional referendum held in April broadened Erdogan's powers. During the demonstrations ahead of the referendum, the media was not allowed to freely cover supporters of the opposition's No - "Hayir" - position. This led Ipek Özsüslü to draw this cartoon in March. "Your resistance is calcified," says the plumber with a Hayir on his bottom.

Critical caricatures from Turkey The interests of the US Among the works on show at the exhibition "Schluss mit Lustig" (Get Serious), Erdogan is not the only one targeted by Turkish cartoonists. This drawing criticizes Trump's "Muslim travel ban." Referring to US soldiers, the child asks, "When will we finally expell them, papa?" The father darkly replies, "When our oil is all used up."

Critical caricatures from Turkey Sex = taboo As one of the rare female cartoonists in Turkey, Ramize Erer addresses feminist topics and breaks taboos surrounding sex. She depicts explicit female sexuality, often offending the country's conservatives. One of her recurring characters is the busty, men-devouring "bad girl." Sexuality is one of the biggest taboos in Turkey.

Critical caricatures from Turkey The state of the world Artist Mehmet Cagcag shows his views of the current state of the planet with this drawing: Dynamite is attached to world clocks, and from Baghdad to Athens, from Berlin to France, international cities are ticking bombs. The cartoonist does not reveal when and if they'll actually explode.

Critical caricatures from Turkey Third Bosphorus Bridge With his drawing from 2014, Murat Basol reacts to the then-being-built third bridge over the Bosphorus. Unlike Erdogan, the cartoonist does not see the bridge linking the Asian and European sides of Istanbul as a demonstration of Turkey's progress, but rather as a polluting construction project that will lead to more traffic and exhaust fumes.

Critical caricatures from Turkey Searching for free spaces Free spaces are no longer available everywhere in Turkey; one has to look for them and even fight for them. That's the idea transmitted by Zeynep Özatalay's cartoon. The authors, musicians and painters depicted in this drawing succeed in pushing back the void. The cartoon was published in the newspaper BirGün, an open critic of Erdogan's party, the AKP. Author: Bettina Baumann (eg)



ss,jbh/rt (Reuters, AP, AFP, dpa)