Turkey says alleged UAE spy hung himself in cell. Fears for Emirates NBD’s deal for Sberbank’s Denizbank may follow

Turkey says alleged UAE spy hung himself in cell. Fears for Emirates NBD’s deal for Sberbank’s Denizbank may follow
Might the sale of Denizbank to Emirates NBD get caught up in worsening relations between Turkey and UAE? / Graf photo.
By bne IntelliNews April 29, 2019

A man held by Turkey on suspicion of spying for the United Arab Emirates—in a case that Turkish investigators are probing for links to the brutal murder of Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul last October—committed suicide by hanging himself in prison, the Istanbul prosecutor's office said on April 29.

If the incident triggers a further deterioration of Turkish relations with close Saudi ally UAE, analysts will look for possible ramifications as regards the planned but still not completed sale of Russian Sberbank’s Turkey unit, Denizbank, to Dubai’s biggest bank Emirates NBD, agreed at a knockdown price in early April given the Turkish lira crisis.

Ankara still has severely strained relations with Riyadh over the killing of Khashoggi, murdered by an elite Saudi hit squad, and other issues such as Turkish support for the Muslim Brotherhood and Qatar, and there have been reports that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has proved reluctant to give his assent to the sale of Denizbank to the lender from Dubai, the UAE’s most populated emirate. However, cancelling the deal would risk upsetting Erdogan’s ally Vladimir Putin.

Reportedly the sale progressed—but only with difficulty—after Denizbank CEO Hakan Ates last year organised meetings with Erdogan and then Turkish PM Binali Yildirim. Turkey’s top ally among the Arab Gulf states is Qatar, which the Saudis, UAE and other Arab nations have targeted with a trade boycott over various political disagreements.

The dead suspect, named as Zaki Y. M. Hasan, was found hanging from the bathroom door in his one-person cell in Silivri prison, west of Istanbul, when guards arrived to give him food on the morning of April 28 , the prosecutor's office statement said.

An investigation has been launched and the Istanbul forensics institute has carried out an autopsy, the statement added.

Pair 'had confessed'
The deceased was one of two suspects charged with international, political and military espionage. The pair were arrested on April 19. They had confessed to spying on Arab nationals, a senior Turkish official said at the time, according to Reuters.

Investigators are reportedly examining whether the arrival in Turkey of one of the detainees was related to the murder of Khashoggi.

Turkish state broadcaster TRT's Arabic service said both of the men were Palestinians and carried Palestinian passports. Hasan was a 55-year-old retired major general and a senior intelligence official, TRT said on its website.

In an interview with Saudi-owned Al-Arabiya TV, a man who identified himself as Hasan's son said his father had gone to Turkey to search for a job and the family had lost contact with him on April 7.

A woman who identified herself as Hasan's sister in the same interview said she was certain her brother would not have committed suicide.

Erdogan has pressured the Trump administration to give full backing to investigations into the Khashoggi killing and not set the matter aside because of its ties with Riyadh and alliance with the kingdom in the battle to isolate Iran.

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