Police step up hunt

Turkish authorities search for members of prominent banking family

ANKARA (AFP) - Turkish police stepped up a hunt yesterday for the heads of a prominent family empire and senior executives of the Imar Bank, which has been seized by the government because it allegedly posed a threat to the banking system.

Police raided a farm, an island hideaway in the Mediterranean and a yacht in a fruitless search for members of the controversial Uzan family, the Anatolia news agency said.

The move was the latest in a crackdown on the Uzan family, which has accused the government of waging a campaign against Cem Uzan, whose party could pose a challenge to the government in next year’s local elections.

Cem Uzan, 42, who was not on the arrest list, leads the populist and nationalist Youth Party, which opinion polls say has risen to second place behind the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK).

The search for members of the Uzan family and senior lieutenants was accompanied by a number of other measures, including the freezing of the accounts of Cem Uzan and his younger brother Hakan, the scions of one of the nation’s wealthiest families.

The Istanbul prosecutor investigating irregularities at the Imar Bank ordered the detention of the family head, Kemal Uzan, his brother Yavuz, his wife Malahat and Hakan.

Cem Uzan, a US-educated media baron, was assailed Sunday by Turkish citizens accusing him of turning their bank deposits into thin air.

But Uzan, addressing a rally in the southern town of Adana, again accused Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s AK of acting against the family as part of a political campaign directed at him.

“Even my 62-year-old mother is among those sought. Such behavior is typical of the AK,” he told the rally.

The State is responsible for banks it takes under its protection, and guarantees deposits, but in the case of the Imar Bank it has so far refused to return deposits, saying that the accounts of the bank are not clear.

The State last week introduced a new law that provides for heavy sanctions against the owners or directors of banks who fall short of their professional obligations.

The government seized the Imar Bank last month and also replaced the management of the Uzan family’s second bank, Adabank.