Reza Zarrab has no links with Iran, says Iranian MP

An Iranian businessman awaiting trial in Turkey on charges of bribing officials to cover up alleged illegal gold sales to Iran via Turkey, had no links with the Iranian state, the Turkey-Iran interparliamentary group president said Wednesday.

The anti corruption, bribery and money laundering operation, launched on December 17, resulted in the detentions and arrests of high-profile bureaucrats, sons of three former cabinet ministers and businessmen including Reza Zarrab.

Muayyed Husayni Sadr, the president of the Turkey-Iran inter parliamentary friendship group, told an Anadolu Agency correspondent that Iranian-born Zarrab was a businessman who operated in Turkey.

Sadr rejected the existence of any links between Zarrab and the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Zarrab is accused of establishing a circle of people who bribed officials to cover up alleged illegal gold sales to Iran via Turkey’s state-owned lender Halkbank.

The Turkish government claims it is targeted by a "parallel state" a 'state within the state' that has international links.

Prime Minister Erdogan and senior government officials have blamed the group for attempting to run an agenda of its own.