Cicek: Looters will have no peace

The task of debt follow-up for those, who looted banks, which used to be carried out so far by the Banking Regulating Board (BDDK), will be done by the Finance Ministry from now on. Justice Minister Cemil Cicek announced that they forwarded the motion on “Amendments in the Banking Law, A Number of Laws, and A Decree” to the Prime Ministry.According to the motion, those, who looted banks, will not be released from prison, until they paid the last penny of their debt.According to the motion, unless looters paid their debts and reparations to the Deposits Insurance Fund and Treasury or unless their debt is extracted from their properties, their sentences will not be converted into fines or, postponed. The motion accelerates the judicial process regarding bank looters and bestows greater powers to judiciary to prevent these looters from hiding their properties. Moreover, the motion assigns the duty of following up the debts of bank looters and powers about monitoring the trials to the Finance Ministry.New arrangements put forward by the new motion include:RIGHT TO BUG PHONE CONVERSATIONSThe authority of the Public Prosecutors is enlarged in case of banking crimes. In the investigation process into such crimes, public prosecutors will be allowed to tap phone conversations and take some other measures, put forward in the 2nd and 10the articles of the Law on Fighting Organized Crime.CONFISCATION OF LOOTED PROPERTYIn the looting cases, the public prosecutor will have the power to confiscate the properties of the convict, which are deemed to be owned through looting.ARMOUR OF LOOTER WILL BE REMOVEDProtection, put forward in the Law on the Trial of Civil Servants and Other Public Employees, will not be applied in the cases of bribery, embezzlement, smuggling, fraud, and disclosing state secrets. Public Prosecutor will directly launch an investigation.PUNISHMENT FOR RESISTANTSThose, who do not meet the demands of public prosecutors in terms of the procedure of investigation, will be sentenced to prison from 3 to 6 months.The motion also provides some assurances for public prosecutors, for instance, regarding their appointment to other places while a looting investigation is still under way.What is more, according to the motion, the bank accounts of the looters will be frozen, so that they will not be able to use even ATMs. The looted amount in the banks will be considered as a debt to the Treasury. �