ANKARA - A former Turkish public works and housing minister went on trial Wednesday on charges of fraud in a tender for the construction of an expressway in the north of the country.
Yasar Topcu is accused of breaching the rules of state tenders, personally interfering in the selection of companies, preventing the submittal of advantageous offers and causing the state to pay out more than necessary in the tender launched in the late 1990s.
He could face at least 10 years in jail if found guilty by the Supreme Court, the name under which the constitutional court judges senior government officials. The decisions of the Supreme Court are irrevocable.
In Wednesday's opening session, Topcu, a lawyer by profession, said he would defend himself and asked the court to throw out the case, arguing that he had been cleared of the allegations by a parliamentary vote in 2000 and could not be tried again without new evidence.
"There are two reason why I am being tried. One is political gain and the second is to influence public opinion," he told the court.
The 11-judge panel rejected his demand and adjourned the trial until March 28 to give the ex-minister time to prepare his defence.
Topcu belonged to the centre-left Motherland Party (ANAP) and was a member of the cabinet of former prime minister Mesut Yilmaz, who is also being tried by the Supreme Court for corruption over a banking scandal with alleged mafia involvement.
The two are among six ministers whom parliament decided should be tried since the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) came to power in 2002.
The trials came at the end of a far-reaching parliamentary inquiry looking at claims of allegedly large-scale fraud in tenders, sell-offs, banking reforms and energy projects over the past decade that have reportedly cost Turkey billions of dollars.
The AKP initiated an anti-fraud campaign in parliament following pre-election pledges to stamp out chronic corruption, seen by many as one of the core reasons for the economic woes plaguing the country.
03/02/2005 11:04 GMT