Turkey's chief prosecutor on Wednesday launched an investigation into whether the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) had any links to a scandal in Germany where an Islamic charity siphoned off donations, CNN-Turk television reported.
A court in Frankfurt in September jailed three managers of the Deniz Feneri (Lighthouse) charity after finding that donations given by German Turks worth some 14.5 million euros (18.5 million dollars) were siphoned off into private companies, dpa reported.
Several people with close ties to the AKP, including the head of Turkey's media watchdog, were implicated in the scandal.
If prosecutor Abdurrahman Yalcinkaya finds that the AKP itself received any of the siphoned out funds, then he could launch a case to have the party closed down by the Constitutional Court, CNN-Turk reported.
In July the court found the AKP guilty of anti-secular activities but issued fines against the party instead of ordering it to close.