A US jurys decision to convict an executive at Turkeys majority state-owned Halkbank for helping Iran evade sanctions is "a scandalous decision of a scandalous case", the spokesman for Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said on Thursday. Ibrahim Kalin made the comment during a news conference in Ankara a day after Mehmet Hakan Atilla was convicted on five of six counts he faced, including bank fraud and conspiracy to violate US sanctions law, in a Manhattan federal court. Turkeys deputy prime minister, Bekir Bozdag, took to Twitter to describe the trial as a "political conspiracy" of "no legal value to Turkey." "Turkey is a full sovereign and fully independent country," Bozdag said. "Another country cannot put Turkeys institutions on trial." The court decision, which capped a trial that had already strained diplomatic relations between the two countries, is likely to further aggravate tension between the NATO allies. "It is an unjust and unfortunate development" that Atilla was found guilty, Turkeys foreign ministry said in a statement. "The US court, in a process carried out by relying on so-called evidence, which is fake and open to political exploitation, ... made an unprecedented interference in Turkeys internal affairs." The case against Atilla was based on the testimony of the wealthy Turkish-Iranian gold trader Reza Zarrab, who cooperated with US prosecutors and pleaded guilty to charges of leading a scheme to evade US sanctions against Iran. In his testimony, Zarrab implicated top Turkish politicians.