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 'leader of the organization' 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', 'Preventing communications', 'Damaging public property', 'Taking bribes', 'Publicly disseminating misleading information to the public', It was claimed that he committed the crimes of 'Extortion', 'Laundering of property values resulting from crime', '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 between 828 years and 2 months and 2 thousand 352 years in prison for 142 actions.
5 MILLION DOLLAR DEMAND CLAIM
Witness İlker Aydın, Deputy General Manager Responsible for Investments at Abdi İbrahim Company, said, "The owner of our company, Nezih Barut, and Münir Özkök had a joint company established for the project in Şişli. The Chairman of the Board of Directors of this company was Ali Alaltun, and the Deputy Chairman of the Board was Münir Özkök. After a while, a commercial dispute arose between the partners. As a result, the two partners did not meet directly with each other. Münir Bey's partner, Yusuf Arslan, and ours were on our side. They started communicating through me. The project consisted of 3 blocks. When 2 blocks were completed, Yusuf Arslan told me that the official process had not progressed and that there was a request for 5 million dollars. He said that this was conveyed to Mr. Münir and that he wanted the issue to be conveyed to Nezih Barut. Thereupon, Mr. Nezih called Timur Soysal for a meeting. Mr. Timur said that this was an unfair demand and that it could not be accepted. Mr. Timur stated that the issue had nothing to do with construction suitability and that it was an independent demand. Altan Ertürk said that he spoke on behalf of the mayor at the meeting and that 3.5 million dollars had to be given for the first two blocks. After that, I know that the partners withdrew exactly this amount from the company, equivalent to 3.5 million dollars. "I did not witness it," he said.
'YAKUP ÖNER ASKED MEHMET TORUN TO DONATE'
Witness Metin Karakoç, an employee of Torunlar İnşaat company, said, "Yakup Öner from Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality asked Mehmet Torun to donate. Mehmet Bey accepted this donation. We made the payment after it was passed by the parliament. During the earthquake, Öner asked me, 'As the municipality, we provide aid to the earthquake zone, can you provide us with 5 million dollars in food aid?' he said. I need to share this with the management of our company, I said, give me a moment. When we shared it with the management, they said, 'We donated a large amount to AFAD and the Red Crescent, this is related to the earthquake and since we continue to do so, we do not want to donate to municipalities and other institutions at the moment.' That's why I conveyed it to him and he thanked me."
'WE WOULD NOT HAVE GOT A LICENSE IF WE HAD NOT GIVEN 5 CHECKS'
Witness Uğur Kemal Gökbulut said, "I visited Resul Emrah Şahan for the license of the project around 2020. Emrah Mayor appointed Engin Polat President. We did our license work with Engin Polat Bey. He said that our license work was a charity work. I conveyed it to DAP Holding Chairman of the Board of Directors, Ziya Yılmaz. Ziya Bey also saw it as a charity work and 5 checks were given to the people directed by Engin Polat Bey. We, those people, "We haven't seen any of them, we don't know them. They said they wanted it for a charity project, and we got the license by giving it. If we hadn't given it, we wouldn't have gotten the license."
'YOU ARE THE SECOND PERSON SENT BY GOD TODAY'
After the statements of Çuhadaroğlu İnşaat General Manager Kenan Nakit were taken, İmamoğlu took the floor. I asked the broker, "You made a conditional donation. There is a condition that the land will be returned to the company if there is no investment. Is this true?" he said. The intermediary said, "It is true." İmamoğlu said, "We invited you to cooperate in building a cultural center and marketplace in the region where our poorest citizens live, is it true?" posed the question. The intermediary answered "True" to this question.
When the witness Muhammed Taşdemir said that he did not know İmamoğlu and that they were not involved in any activity, İmamoğlu said, "You are the second person sent by God today after Kenan Aracu. Thank you."
THE HEARING HAS BEEN POSTPONED
The hearing will continue tomorrow at 10:00.
*The visuals of the news were provided by ANKA.
