Testimony at US trial tests relations with Turkey
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A criminal trial that has chilled relations between the US and one of its important allies, Turkey, began in a New York courtroom over the past week with testimony by a once high-flying gold trader who claimed to have paid millions of dollars in bribes to government and banking officials in Turkey.
Some of the testimony by the Turkish-Iranian businessman, Reza Zarrab, has even implicated Turkey's president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, in a scheme to help Iran evade US sanctions.
Erdogan's ministers say the trial is based on fabricated evidence. They have called Zarrab a "hostage."
