Turkey’s leading anti-corruption prosecutor accused of corruption

Zekeriya Oz, Turkey's most famous prosecutor who kept shaking the ground with sensational investigations in the past few years, including the Ergenekon and the match-fixing case, is now on a steep fall after his mesmerizing rise to prominence.

Born in 1968, Oz is from a large Turkish family who had migrated to Turkey from Bulgaria. During his late teens, he helped his father’s business for a while, bought goods from Istanbul and sold them in Bursa and Yalova, where he was raised. After his graduation from the law faculty of Istanbul University in 1991, he worked as an attorney in Bursa. His friends say that his nickname was “the Grim,” like Ottoman Sultan Selim I, “because he never throws in the towel.” 

Without any hint about his political affiliation in his past, mainstream media contends itself by mentioning the fact that his wife doesn’t wear the Islamic headscarf. However, as Al-Monitor columnist Mustafa Akyol points out, Oz “is widely believed to be a member of the Gulen movement.”  

Oz had passed the state exam and became a prosecutor in 1997. Following his terms in a couple of Anatolian towns, he was appointed to Istanbul. In his new office, he was known as a tough law enforcer, equally uncomprimising whether he prosecuted a case of electricity theft or female peddlers or al-Qaeda terrorism.