Turkish authorities have arrested a former minister, Fatma Betül Sayan Kaya, over alleged involvement in a multi-billion-dollar stock market scandal affecting about 445,000 investors.
Kaya, a long-time ally of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and former deputy head of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), is being investigated by Istanbul prosecutors.
The prosecutors are investigating her on suspicion of violating the capital markets law and membership in a criminal organisation, the state news agency Anadolu reported late Thursday.
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Erdoğan told journalists that he would hold those responsible for making illegal profits and manipulating capital markets in connection with a stock market scandal worth billions.
“We will free our capital markets from these germs”, he said
Kaya resigned from her AKP position in late September after the scandal came to light and opposition figures accused her of wrongdoing.
In mid-September, suspected price manipulation by investment funds triggered a stock market crisis.
In response, the financial regulator ordered the dissolution of 131 funds.
Around 455,000 investors were reportedly affected by the crisis.
The crisis has also prompted investigations, numerous arrests and dismissals at the financial regulator and the Finance Ministry.
In early November, Justice Minister Akın Gürlek said investigations into the stock market scandal had shown that it was not a simply stock market fraud but “a comprehensive criminal organisation.”
The opposition does not regard the case as an individual crime, but as a matter of political responsibility and control within the AKP.
Erdoğan’s key political rival, the detained former Istanbul mayor, Ekrem İmamoğlu, claims that everyone involved in the fund scandal belongs to the government circle.
During her first questioning in early October, Kaya and her husband denied the allegations.
She said she had made her investment decisions herself and had received no confidential information.
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