Turkey has launched a probe into a former and a current U.S. prosecutors who are currently involved in a case against Turkish citizens in New York.
Reza Zarrab, a Turkish-Iranian national, and Mehmet Hakan Atilla, the deputy chief executive of Turkish lender Halkbank, are being held in the United States on charges of violating sanctions against Iran.
The case was brought by the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York Preet Bharara -- who was fired this year by President Donald Trump -- and then continued under his successor Joon Kim.
The Istanbul Public Prosecutor's Office on Saturday accused former U.S. prosecutor Preet Bharara and current U.S. prosecutor Joon H. Kim of using information and documents from previous investigations in Turkey for an ongoing case in the U.S.
The U.S. prosecutors had obtained some voice recordings and other fake documents from unknown persons instead of official channels, which was contrary to international law, for building their case against Turkish citizens in America, according to Istanbul Public Prosecutor's Office.
Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu blamed the case on Fethullah Gulen, the US-based FETO leader who is the mastermind of bloody July 15 coup attempt in 2016.
Çavuşoğlu said that Gulen had succeeded in infiltrating the US justice system, describing the case as "very much FETO motivated".
He also said that Bharara was "very close to FETO and he is not hiding this."
Zarrab was arrested by US authorities in March 2016 after flying with his pop star wife Ebru Gündeş and their daughter to Miami for a Disney World holiday.
President Erdoğan has repeatedly called for the release of Zarrab and Atilla, with the issue becoming a another bone of contention in the troubled relations between Ankara and Washington.
