Turkey ends 2013 with a massive corruption scandal centering on the country’s Islamist-oriented Justice and Development Party (AKP) cabinet ministers and potentially the family members of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. 

Faced with a serious corruption scandal, Erdogan took a firm position against the criminal justice system. Muammer Akkas, the prosecutor who was overseeing the graft probe, was removed on Dec. 26. Akkas issued a written statement on the same day directly accusing the Erdogan government of interfering with the judiciary. He called upon all those responsible in the judicial system to take a stand in favor of upholding the highest standards of the rule of law.

“Court orders have not been carried out and there has been open pressure on the judicial process from both the chief prosecutor’s office and the police force, which is supposed to carry out the decisions of the courts,” Akkas wrote in his statement.

He made a second appeal on Dec. 30 by releasing yet another written statement, stressing, “I did not leak any information or document about this investigation to any unauthorized individuals. People should question those [the police] who did not carry the prosecutor’s order in regard to the violation of the secrecy code of the investigation.” Akkas was responding to Erdogan’s accusations about his professionalism.