The 'Corruption' investigation against Ekrem İmamoğlu, who was suspended from his post as the Mayor of Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality and arrested, was completed and a 3,809-page indictment was prepared on November 11, 2025. Ekrem İmamoğlu, who is mentioned as the 'organization leader' in the indictment; 'Establishing an organization for the purpose of committing a crime', 'Bribery', 'Laundering of proceeds of crime', 'Fraud to the detriment of public institutions and organizations', 'Recording personal data', 'Seizing and disseminating personal data', 'Hiding evidence of crime', 'Obstructing communications', 'Damaging public property', 'Taking bribes', 'Disseminating misleading information to the public', 'Extortion', 'Property resulting from crime' It was claimed that he committed the crimes of "laundering values", "tender rigging", "deliberate pollution of the environment", "opposition to the tax procedure law", "opposition to the forest law" and "opposition to the mining law". It is requested that İmamoğlu be sentenced to imprisonment from 828 years and 2 months to 2,352 years for 142 actions.
"IT WAS MADE WITH OUR OWN COMPANIES' EQUITY RESOURCES"
In his defense, unarrested defendant businessman Necmettin Şimşek said, "First of all, I would like to inform you about the misperception and smear campaign created by the other defendants about me. We rented the real estate in question from KİPTAŞ Joint Stock Company, a subsidiary of Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality, in 2013 to build an amusement park. We completed the investment. In fact, KİPTAŞ was always involved in the licensing processes here. We operated it for a year. At the end of this year, neighbors and the surrounding area received notice as an amusement park." Due to serious disturbances and complaints about our activities there, we made a new investment and converted it as a school by getting approval from the KİPTAŞ Joint Stock Company officials. We invested again and continued our activities for about 4 years. With the change of management in 2019, one of the two officials of the KİPTAŞ Joint Stock Company who gave consent for our operation of this land as a school made a determination and initiated a process regarding the use of the land in violation of the contract, and at the end of this process, a formal eviction. KİPTAŞ A.Ş. made an evacuation decision. Of course, while we were running this place as a school, many students developed a sense of belonging here and created an order. While we were looking for a compromise and agreement, we crossed paths with Turan Aydoğan, whom I complained about. First of all, the entire superstructure of the land we were evacuated from was built with the own resources of our own companies. Here, İmamoğlu and his friends came to the evacuation center and put on a show. "They talked about this issue on social media and other media for about a week, creating the perception that these investments were made with the resources of IMM and the public, and that this place was rented to me at very cheap prices. I would like to express that this is not the case. All of the investments made there under the supervision of the KİPTAŞ management at that time were made with the capital of my company. They owe me an apology, I would like to express this as well."
'THE PRESIDENT CAUSED PUBLIC HARM UNDER THE NAME OF PROTECTING THE PUBLIC INTEREST ON BEHALF OF THE PEOPLE'
Şimşek said, "While we were looking for a solution, we met Turan Aydoğan. When a friend of mine named Hüseyin Aydın saw this problem of mine, he introduced me to him in order to help me in my search for a solution. We were looking for a compromise ground based on the decisions given by the court in legal and political terms, and after asking if he could help in this matter, he said that he could help, that he was İmamoğlu's advisor and that they even appointed the General Manager of KİPTAŞ, and that these things were easy for him. If we could, he said We agreed to discuss our request for a legal, if not a political, compromise and handed over the task. However, even though he said 'everything is fine, there is no problem, we are discussing this issue, we are solving it', the eviction process took place. Afterwards, he did not give us back the money we paid, and we had a lot of pressure on this issue, such as 'pay the money, since you couldn't do the job'. In fact, for a while, our relations with him came to the point of deterioration. One day, he came to me with a voice recording and stated in his own words that Turan Aydoğan had bad intentions, despite his serious efforts in this matter, that he was a new foundation, that he had no hope and that we should complain. "I never perceived the alleged criminal elements as bribery on my part. However, it has been seen that our interlocutor, Mr. President, and his friends manage these issues in this way. "They have wasted my investments, not even a lira of which was from the municipality, and I submit my complaint against all of them," he said.
'WHAT PURPOSE DID YOU GIVE 200 THOUSAND DOLLARS?'
The presiding judge asked, "To whom did you pay this 200 thousand dollars?" Defendant Şimşek said, "We made an agreement with Turan Aydoğan. Since I was not available, we delivered it to Turan Aydoğan through Hüseyin Aydın." Later, the presiding judge said, "You just said, 'We did not consider this to be a bribe. When I listened to the voice recording brought by Hüseyin Aydın, I realized it was a bribe from the statements there.' With what logic did you give this 200 thousand dollars?" he asked. Şimşek said, "The institution that issued this decision to evacuate is an educational institution. It is an institution with 500 students, a place that has been operated for years. We were faced with the eviction decision at a time we never expected and with the Supreme Court road closed. Of course, our grievance was great. What kind of a path do we follow to prevent this? The addressees of this issue, both legally and politically, are of course the Metropolitan Municipality administrators." The presiding judge then asked, "For what purpose did you give 200 thousand dollars? What kind of money is this?" he asked the question. Şimşek said, "Our agreement with Turan Aydoğan is as follows; there are legal ways to go. Because the main reason why we went to him is that he is a lawyer and stated that he is the advisor of the President. We agreed to solve it in whatever way we can, both legally and politically, because he is a lawyer and he will understand our legal problem more accurately and lead us to a compromise. He asked me for a fee of 500 thousand dollars and asked for 200 thousand dollars in advance." The presiding judge asked: "What is this? When you gave it here, don't you know what this is? What kind of money was this talked about? Was it talked about as a lawyer's fee? Is there any consultancy regarding a lawyer's fee, do you have a contract?" he asked the question. Şimşek said, "We have verbal agreements. Because we are sitting in a consultancy capacity."
"MY FATHER DID NOT LOOK INTO THIS ISSUE."
