ANKARA, Feb 16 (AFP) - Former Turkish prime minister Mesut Yilmaz rejected charges of corruption as he went on trial Wednesday over a banking scandal with alleged mafia involvement, becoming the first head of government to be tried by the Supreme Court.
Yilmaz, a three time prime minister and former chairman of the centre-right Motherland Party (ANAP), is charged with fraud in the bungled 1998 privatisation of the state-run Turkbank, which brought down his government.
The 58-year-old politician is on trial with his former economy minister Gunes Taner, 56, after the parliament, dominated by the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), voted to send them to court following a lengthy house inquiry into corruption allegations in the last decade.
Yilmaz denied that he had rigged Turkbank's privatisation for a pre-determined winner and argued he was unaware that an underworld figure had intervened in the process to scare off other bidders.
"There was no meddling whatsoever on my part as a prime minister," Yilmaz said, arguing that other government agencies were in charge of the tender process.
The charges are part of a "politically-motivated conspiracy," he said.
Yilmaz conceded he had met briefly with the controversial businessman who later won the tender, but claimed he was unaware of his underworld ties.
He blamed the police for failing to inform him in due time of tapes of phone conversations between the businessman and the mafioso, although he acknowledged that rumors of mafia involvement in the tender had already reached his office.
The scandal surfaced when the tapes were leaked to the media.
Taner also rejected any wrongdoing in the sell-off.
The two men face at least 10 years in jail if found guilty.
In Wednesday's hearing before a media throng and the politicans' supporters, the defense presented the court with their arguments on what they considered procedural mistakes in the trial.
The 11-judge panel decided to hear of eight witnesses, setting the next hearing for March 24.
The Turkbank affair led to a no-confidence vote and the collapse of the government led by Yilmaz, who was cleared in a first parliamentary investigation in 2000 and never prosecuted.
Yilmaz dropped out of politics after ANAP failed to enter parliament in the November 2002 election that swept Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's AKP to power.
The Turkbank sell-off was cancelled after the scandal and the bank is now in the process of being dissolved.
Wednesday's trial was dismissed by Yilmaz supporters as a government ploy to cover up its own shortcomings.
"The AKP is bringing honest people to trial to hide their own ineptitude," said Hamdiye Cakmak, a housewife in her 50s who said she came from Istanbul to attend follow the trial.
The parliament's drive against Yilmaz and several other former ministers is a showcase for the AKP, an Islamist-rooted conservative movement that has pledged to combat widespread corruption plaguing the country.
The AKP, however, has come under fire for failing to address allegations of fraud within its own ranks.
The decisions of the Supreme Court -- the name under which the Constitutional Court, Turkey's top tribunal, judges senior public officials -- are irrevocable.
Turkey has tried former ministers on a variety of charges since 1928; three, including former prime minister Adnan Menderes, were executed after being convicted by a special court in the wake of a 1960 military coup and several others have been sentenced to prison terms and fines.
02/16/2005 16:43 GMT - AFP