The Turkish opposition wants an investigation into bribery claims.

 

Turkey's ANKARA (AP) — On Monday, Turkish opposition groups filed legal complaints to force Turkish prosecutors to look into allegations of corruption made against members of the ruling party of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan by a fugitive mafia boss.

Sedat Peker, a former crime boss-turned-whistleblower, accused the former head of the Turkish Capital Markets Board, a legislator from the ruling party, a presidential adviser, and others of being a part of a network that allegedly sought bribes from companies trading on the stock market in a series of tweets over the weekend.

Peker claimed that members of the organization asked a businesswoman for payments under the cover of "consultancy fees" in order to fix an issue the company was having. The entrepreneur responded to the Halk TV news program on Saturday by confirming the claims.

Serhat Albayrak, the chairman of the pro-government Turkuvaz Media group and the brother of Erdogan's son-in-law, Berat Albayrak, was allegedly responsible for coordinating the alleged bribery scheme, according to the mafia boss. The allegations was refuted by Albayrak's attorney, who also threatened legal action against the "totally bogus" claims.

The assertions have also been refuted by other officials.

At least five opposition groups, including the main opposition Republican Peoples Party, or CHP, submitted criminal complaints on Monday, urging the judiciary to investigate the claims because, in their view, it serves Erdogan's nationalist regime.

DEVA, the opposition party, member Mustafa Yeneroglu said, "We know that the judiciary is currently working for the government. "However, in order for it to be recorded in history, we will submit a criminal complaint. There will be ethical prosecutors one day who will pursue these offenses.

The Justice and Development Party of Erdogan was formerly openly backed by Peker, a 51-year-old wanted criminal lord. He rose to fame on social media last year after publishing several videos from his purported headquarters in the United Arab Emirates in which he made outrageous allegations against prominent Turkish politicians.

He has allegedly been accusing people of corruption on Twitter more recently after being told to stop capturing videos for security reasons.