(USASABAH)
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has opened a lawsuit against Britain's Daily Telegraph newspaper over a story in which the daily claimed his party was receiving funds from Iran.
England's Press Gazette quotes Prime Minister Erdoğan as having said that the British newspaper's report was a slander and details the lawsuit petition.
According to a story in the Press Gazette, another British media organ, Erdoğan's office demanded the removal of the story from the paper's website and an apology. The office then took legal action when the daily failed to fulfill Erdoğan's demands.
Author Con Coughlin defended his article to the Turkish media in September, saying the money had been transferred from the Iranian Ahl-Beit Institution to Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan through the İHH, a Turkish aid organization some have accused of links with radical Islam. However, he was unable to back the story with any documented evidence.
The Telegraph Media Group has made no comments about this development.