Joe Biden holds his first meeting as U.S. president with Tayyip Erdogan on Monday, ending a five-month wait for the Turkish leader which underlines the cooler relations between Ankara and Washington since Biden took office in January.
The two leaders must navigate an array of disputes, most of which pre-date Biden s taking office in January and which have strained relations between the two allies for years.
Apr 17 2021 06:34 Gmt+3
Last Updated On: Apr 17 2021 06:51 Gmt+3
Ebru Gündeş, the popstar wife of Iranian-Turkish businessman Reza Zarrab, has filed for divorce after over a decade of marriage, Halk TV reported on Friday.
Gündeş married Zarrab in 2010, six years before Zarrab was arrested in the United States on charges of evading sanctions on Iran.
Arrested in Miami on March 19 2016, Zarrab pleaded guilty to various crimes related to fraud and money laundering, and became a government witness in return for leniency.
The businessman’s testimony helped convict Mehmet Hakan Atilla, a former manager at Turkey’s state-run Halkbank.
The couple have one daughter together and Zarrab has settled in New York even although his wife and daughter remain in Turkey.
run afoul of the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act.
(Halkbank image via Courthouse News)
MANHATTAN (CN) The Second Circuit appeared unlikely Monday to rule that Turkey’s state-run Halkbank is immune from claims over the same crimes that brought indictments against its executives.
“Since the bank is synonymous with government of Turkey, in your view, I assume the officers of the bank would be, in effect, state officials; Are they state officials?,” U.S. Circuit Judge Jose Cabranes asked an attorney for the bank this afternoon as the Manhattan-based court held remote oral arguments.
“Several of these managers or executives of the bank been indicted,” the Clinton-appointed judge noted. “Has anybody asserted a claim of diplomatic immunity or any sort of immunity that’s ascribable to the government?”
Published date: 13 April 2021 21:22 UTC | Last update: 4 days 6 hours ago
A lawyer for Halkbank has told a US appeals court that an indictment accusing the state-owned Turkish lender of helping Iran evade sanctions should be thrown out because the bank is immune from prosecution.
In oral arguments presented before the 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan, Halkbank s lawyer Simon Latcovich said the US government had no basis to assert criminal jurisdiction and that the bank was synonymous with the Turkish state for purposes of immunity.
Latcovich asserted the bank has claims to immunity under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (FSIA), which establishes limitations as to whether a foreign country can be charged in a US court.