Turkish prosecutors drop case against 60 people in corruption probe

Turkish prosecutors on Friday dropped a case against 60 people, including the son of a former minister, in a corruption probe that has rocked the Turkish government, local media said.

An Istanbul prosecutor handling the probe into graft in Turkey's housing agency TOKI decided not to take the suspects to court, citing "lack of evidence".

The suspects who have escaped prosecution include Oguz Bayraktar, the son of former environment minister Erdogan Bayraktar, and construction tycoon Ali Agaoglu, the Dogan news agency reported.

They were detained in police raids in mid-December, when the corruption scandal first erupted, and charged with accepting and facilitating bribes for construction projects and securing construction permits for protected areas.

Some 30 other key allies of the prime minister, including the sons of two other cabinet ministers, are still facing charges for a raft of offences including corruption, fraud and money laundering.

Former economy minister Zafer Caglayan, former interior minister Muammer Guler and former urbanization minister Bayraktar resigned in January, while former EU minister Egemen Bagis was discharged in a cabinet reshuffle, in the wake of the anti-graft investigations launched on 17 December.

The investigations and the following prosecution saw the detention of the sons of the three former ministers - Guler, Bayraktar, and Caglayan - along with high profile businessmen and the head of the state-owned lender Halkbank. Those detained were later released, pending trial, and have now seen all criminal charges dropped. 

Alleged wiretapping of the phones of Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and other high profile officials from his government emerged after the 17 December anti-graft operations. Erdogan accused supporters of a former ally turned arch-rival, US-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen, of instigating the probe to topple his government.

Erdogan has retaliated by sacking hundreds of police and prosecutors believed to be linked to Gulen and introducing curbs on the judiciary and the Internet.

But his ruling Justice and Development Party has managed to emerge relatively unscathed from the scandal, scoring a resounding victory in 30 March local elections, winning 45 percent of the vote.