At the hearing held by the Istanbul 33rd High Criminal Court in the hall opposite the Marmara Closed Penal Institution, the unarrested defendant Semih Bilgin, the driver of the fugitive defendant businessman Murat Gülibrahimoğlu, made his defense. During the defense of the defendant Bilgin, the detained defendant Fatoş Pınar Türker, General Manager of IMM subsidiary Medya AŞ, fell ill. Medical teams intervened in Türker in the courtroom.
ADEM TUNCAY: THEY WERE ATTEMPT TO PUT PRESSURE ON ME
The unarrested defendant, Advertising Management Manager at Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality, Adem Tuncay, said that he started working in the municipality in 2006, long before the alleged structure. Stating that he was appointed as the director in 2022 and that he continued his de facto duty until the date of his detention, Tuncay said, "During my time in prison, especially after the release of Hakan Karaköse, high-level people of the municipality who had never visited me before, people who introduced themselves as council members, and even one or two members of parliament, started to visit me personally. I met with one of them, and I wrote a petition and informed the prison administration that I did not want to meet with someone." he said.
Tuncay, arguing that he was a civil servant and did not belong to any political party, made the following claims: "There is even a situation like this. When a lady whose name I remember as Ülkü, whose surname I cannot remember now, and a lady who introduced herself as a council member visited me in prison after Karaköse's release, I asked whether Karaköse's statement had reached me or not, 'What could he have said, he slandered.' After making some statements like this, he asked me in an irrelevant way whether I was living in the municipal housing. Under the conditions of that day, this situation had little to do with the topic we were talking about. I did not perceive this as an ordinary question of curiosity. I perceived it as an implicit message that made me feel like my living space was known and my family order was known. In short, after the release of Hakan Karaköse, they tried to indirectly suggest and put pressure on me."
THERE WAS NO FORCE
Stating that he applied to the prosecutor's office of his own free will, Tuncay said, "My reason for applying is as follows; I had the opportunity to think a lot about the situations I experienced during the prison period. As a result of my meetings with my lawyer and the new information I obtained about the file, I applied to the prosecutor's office with a petition and decided to tell what I knew. The prosecutor did not force me to give anyone's name in any way." he declared.
Stating that he applied to the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality with a written petition to return to his duty after his release, Tuncay stated that he still has not been started to work today, and that many senior bureaucrats who were released from this case have been started to work, and he was given a response saying "It was not deemed appropriate because the legal process is still ongoing."
Tuncay said that his wife started working at IMM in 2008, and after 2019, after the new management, she started to experience serious difficulties and was dismissed from her job, where she had been working for about 13 years.
Stating that there are some allegations in the indictment that allegedly took place after the main tender, Tuncay said, "There are mentions of sub-tenders made by subsidiary companies, side bids that are claimed to be collusive, companies that received the job, money being transferred to a system, and other transactions that are claimed to have taken place at later stages. In other words, if someone had a vulnerability in this system in the subsequent processes and took advantage of them, someone gained a benefit, or even if some other transactions were carried out as claimed in the indictment, I have nothing to do with these issues." "I have no knowledge or interest." made his defense.
"BOSS'S COMPANY" CLAIM
The public prosecutor asked, "How would the issue of invoices for work that was not done be like?" In response to the question, defendant Tuncay said that he was told that he had made complaints such as "money was transferred to the subsidiary company".
Tuncay, the public prosecutor said, "You are talking about turning a blind eye to places with high value regarding advertising places. You have a statement that Murat Ongun, through Kağan Sürmegöz, instructed the police not to download these areas and these advertisements in the later process." When he said, "It is true. It was happening in places where it was not possible to give advertising permission in accordance with the regulation. Some of these were already carried out under the name of ecrimisil file. From time to time, requests for removal of these would come from the police. Kaan Bey would make a decision to remove them or not to remove them. Or he would say 'We will discuss it through communication first.' "There were situations where they said and made me wait."
Thereupon, the prosecutor said, "So, an order was being given to the police by Murat Ongun through Kağan Sürmegöz, regarding these places?" Tuncay asked the question, "Yes, in summary." he replied.
The public prosecutor said, "You have statements about Reklamist. You stated that Murat Ongun followed the affairs of this Reklamist through Kağan Sürmegöz. How was this follow-up done?" Defendant Tuncay answered the question: "This is related to Reklamist's work. Mr. Kağan has repeatedly told us that this is his boss company." he said.
The prosecutor asked, "What does he mean by the boss?" Responding to the question, the defendant Tuncay said, "Mr. Murat. In other words, he used to address Mr. Murat as the boss from time to time. He has repeatedly said that he was called 'the boss company'." "As I said, the work of this company was approached in a slightly different manner when the demands came," he said.
When the public prosecutor asked him to detail the issue of an agreement between Modyo and Reklamist, Tuncay said: "Modyo is actually an in-car digital display tender made in 2015. The tender, which lasts approximately 20 years, will end in 2035. There are some lines that are within the scope of Modyo's tender, and since they are the first tender, they are a little more valuable. There are also new lines emerging gradually in newly opened metro stations from now on. We also made a tender for these places, but I do not want to say that all of them are worthless, there are also places with valuable locations. After 2020, Reklamist company would generally aspire for these digital-related parts and would receive these works from the subcontractor or affiliate company. In the later processes, since Reklamist did not want to operate some of the unvaluable locations on the grounds that they could not make enough profit, but since it had won the tender, the unworthy parts were leased, especially to Modyo. "I can say that Modyo actually had to be forced into this."
The prosecutor asked: "Is the purpose here to multiply Reklamist's profits?" To the question, defendant Tuncay said, "Of course, it's the advertiser's." he replied.
MURAT ONGUN: YOU LIVE IN IMM LODGING
Murat Ongun, the Chairman of the Board of Directors of Medya AŞ, the detained defendant, said: "If Ekrem İmamoğlu is the leader of the organization, who made you a manager in the municipality where you have been working for 20 years and gave you lodging, you will be a member of the organization. As the person who gives you your lodging and position. You are currently still living in the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality residence. "Nobody is doing anything bad to you.", the defendant Tuncay said, "Let me tell you, they are doing it very well, so don't say they are not doing it now."
Thereupon, Ongun said, "If they did, they would throw him out of the lodging." he said.
Defendant Tuncay said, "They are working, don't worry, they are working on that too. I am under constant pressure regarding the housing I live in. I didn't bring up this issue, but since you brought it up, let me bring it up. Moreover, this is not the residence of any administrator of the municipality, but the residence of the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality. "I mean, I am not the only civil servant sitting here, there are many civil servants of the municipality living there," he said.
'ALL TENDERS ARE DOCUMENTED'
Eyüp Subaşı, the unarrested defendant who was released by taking advantage of the effective remorse provisions, said in his defense: "Panoffect Media is a company I founded by taking commercial risks without receiving a penny from public resources. In the tender we have entered, we have paid a total of 682 million in rent to Kültür A.Ş., the public and the municipality. In addition, as the Panoffect Media group of companies, we have made an investment of over 20 million dollars, 2 billion. Where is the public harm in this? Despite this, today we are both causing public damage and I bear the responsibility of being accused of fraud. The basis of the indictment is the tenders made between my companies and IMM and its subsidiaries. All of these tenders are documented, commercial and real. In the meeting held first with Fatih Keleş and Tuncay Yılmaz at Mermerciler Sanayi Sitesi, and then with Murat Ongun at the İBB Communication Tent in October 2021, I did not want to throw away my work, I did not accept it. I spent sleepless nights thinking that he would be taken away.
We had meetings with Murat Ongun, Tuncay Yılmaz, Uğurhan Atma, Nihat Sütlaş at the Merter Plaza Reklamist office regarding the terms of the transfer, which were not acceptable to me. The conditions put before us were commercial wreckage to me. Since we could not agree on the turnover figure anyway, I left the table in these negotiations due to my reluctance. Following this negative conversation, some of our advertising locations were taken down. I evaluated this as systematic intimidation and forcing agreement. In fact, we verbally agreed on 75 million, but the transfer figure we agreed upon was reduced to 46 million with Ongun's guidance, and we had to accept the transfer figure as a ridiculous figure due to our debt to Kültür A.Ş. Moreover, this only corresponded to our 1-year rent figure under the conditions of that period. Within the scope of active repentance, I explained the system I encountered while continuing my trade, the demands made on me, and the pressures I was subjected to. I stand behind my statement in general terms and content. However, I do not accept that my statement should be interpreted as membership in an organization. "I am a part of this process as a victim," he said.
'I HEAR FROM THE MOUTH OF CONSULTANTS IT IS CALLED SYSTEM'
The presiding judge asked Subaşı, "What do you mean by system? Who was using this word?" he asked the question. Subaşı said, "We can deduce that this structure is a system because the term system is constantly uttered, especially by consultants. If Fatih Keleş makes a request, Ertan Yıldız makes a request, or has a systematic direction when you want to do a job, I perceive this as a systematic phenomenon. At the end of the day, you become unable to do some work unless the system allows it. I heard it from the consultants' mouth. It is called a system."
After the cross-examination was completed, the statement of Tuncay's lawyer was heard. Meanwhile, with the defense of 6 undetained defendants being taken during the hearing, which lasted approximately 14 hours, the defense of a total of 108 undetained defendants in the case was completed.
