The Bakırköy Prosecutor’s Office on Oct. 7 decided that there is no reason to open an investigation into the issue due to a lack of evidence showing the foundation uses its income for purposes other than for the public good.
Main opposition CHP leader Deniz Baykal had filed a complaint alleging Deniz Feneri misuses its funds.
In September of last year a German court convicted three Turks of funneling $26 million in charitable contributions raised by Deniz Feneri to conservative companies in Turkey. The case sparked a bitter polemic between Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Baykal, who accused the government of pressuring the Capital Markets Board (SPK) to suppress a case against the conservative Kanal 7 television station, which was accused of being one of the companies Deniz Feneri’s funds were illegally forwarded to.
