Turk prez fumes as NYC trial cites him

Turkey cannot be tried by “virtual courts” in the United States, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said derisively in that country’s latest attack on a Manhattan federal trial where high-level Turkish officials have been accused of bribery and money-laundering.

“My country can never be condemned by virtual courts set up by FETO [Fethullahist Terrorist Organization] scoundrels’ fake representatives,” Erdogan said Saturday, according to Turkey’s Hurriyet Daily News.

FETO refers to Fethullah Gulen, a Muslim cleric living in Pennsylvania who has been blamed for last year’s coup attempt in Turkey.

Erdogan made the com- ments in response to the Manhattan testimony of Reza Zarrab, a gold trader who testified that Erdogan played a role in a scheme to help Iran avoid US and UN sanctions.

Zarrab, 34, who has pleaded guilty for his own role, is the star witness in the Manhattan federal trial of Mehmet Hakan Atilla, an executive of a Turkish-government owned bank, with whom Zarrab allegedly worked to help Iran launder money.

On Monday, Atilla’s lawyers submitted to the court a series of jailhouse recordings from Zarrab that they said undermines his testimony, before pulling the documents from the public record without explanation.

“In America in order to make it out of prison you need to admit to something you haven’t committed,” Zarrab said in 2016, the nowmissing court filings claim.