Voting fraud case at CHP congress postponed

Lawyers of the parties attended the hearing held at Ankara 26th Criminal Court of First Instance.

After reading the documents in the case file, the judge announced that the witnesses requested to be heard had not arrived and gave the floor to the lawyers.

Defendant İmamoğlu's lawyer Çağlar Çağlayan also requested that the minutes of Nezahat Kurt's statements at the Istanbul 33rd High Criminal Court regarding Adem Soytekin's "house list to be distributed" claim be added to the file.

Lawyers of other defendants also requested to wait for the witnesses to be heard.

The public prosecutor, who was asked for his opinion after the statements, asked for the missing issues to be corrected.

Announcing its interim decision, the court ruled to accept the requests for a lawyer and to have the witnesses ready for the next hearing.

The hearing was postponed to October 21.

FROM THE INDICTMENT

On June 3, the Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor's Office completed the investigation carried out in accordance with Article 112 of the Political Parties Law and other relevant legislation regarding the 38th Ordinary Congress of the CHP held on November 4-5, 2023, and an indictment was prepared.

In the indictment, former CHP Chairman Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu was included as a victim and former Hatay Metropolitan Municipality Mayor Lütfü Savaş was included as a complainant.

The indictment, which indicates that the defendants acted together and committed the crime, includes the following:

"They gave money to some of the congress delegates who voted at the 38th Ordinary Congress of the Republican People's Party held in Ankara Sports Hall on 4-5 November 2023, to vote in favor of the chairman candidate Özgür Özel, to some of them they offered and committed to candidacy for mayor and municipal council membership in different provinces and districts, to some of them they placed some delegates and their relatives in jobs in CHP municipalities and companies and affiliates of these municipalities, and to some delegates and their relatives." "It has been understood that they distributed a large number of grocery shopping cards to their relatives, asked the delegates who voted at the congress to take photos of their votes with their mobile phones and send them to them, made untrue statements about Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu's withdrawal from candidacy by delaying the transition to the second round of voting after the first round of voting in the congress hall, and thus corrupted the will of the congress delegates and carried out activities to ensure that the chairman candidate Özgür Özel won the general presidential election."

The indictment prepared for 12 defendants, including Ekrem İmamoğlu, who was suspended from his post as the Mayor of Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality, and Izmir Metropolitan Municipality Mayor Cemil Tugay, regarding the allegations of "being made to vote in exchange for money" at the 38th Ordinary Congress of the CHP, was accepted by the Ankara 26th Criminal Court of First Instance, requesting a prison sentence of 1 to 3 years for "voting rigging".