Turkey Condemns Halkbank Sentencing As Political Attack

On Thursday, Turkey condemned the sentencing of an executive from one of its state-owned banks as a political attack by the United States, after a New York court handed down a 32 month prison sentence in an Iran-sanctions case. Mehmet Atilla, the ex-deputy general manager at Halkbank, was sentenced for his role in a scheme to help Iran evade U.S. sanctions. Turkey has repeatedly cast the case as a political attack against it, motivated by forces within the U.S. judiciary.