At the hearing held by the Istanbul 33rd High Criminal Court in the hall opposite the Marmara Closed Penal Institution, the witnesses were heard after the statements of some of the complainants were taken.
Witness Arzu Uçar stated that her husband worked in Beylikdüzü Municipality for 23 years and said, "My wife committed suicide due to an accusation made against her during the Ekrem İmamoğlu period. There is a receipt that was canceled in Beylikdüzü Municipality before she committed suicide. However, the money for the canceled receipt is not there. My wife was working as a cashier in that municipality." he said.
Witness Uçar, who explained that he met with İmamoğlu after his wife's death, said, "I said, 'President, you call it a house, they do not call it that.' Then Ekrem İmamoğlu said, 'Businessmen are shown as if they came together and bought it.' he said. Then we were told to look for an apartment. I was very surprised. "I was really thinking about collecting money from someone and renting an apartment for us." he said.
Witness Uçar said that his wife lost her life because of 160 thousand liras and that the title deed of the house was not given to them and said, "Mehmet Murat Çalık never met with me. A person who had a working life of 23 years was subjected to mobbing." he said.
Another witness, Aydın Şahin, stated that businessman Adem Kameroğlu authorized him and withdrew 2 million liras from the bank and said, "A man named Necati Özkan came, I handed over the money to him. Necati Özkan also invested the money in our construction again. Necati Özkan deposited the money in the form of 500 thousand liras in 4 times." he said.
Ekrem Reşat Tüzün, one of the witnesses, said that he repeated the statements he gave at the prosecutor's office and said, "We were getting permissions for these advertisements from the Urban Design Directorate before. We were getting them only by completing the documents without paying any fee. After 2020, we were directed to Kültür AŞ. After making a payment to Kültür AŞ, the Urban Design Directorate would come to us and give permission." he said.
Presiding Judge Selçuk Aylan said, "You mentioned a system in your statement. What is this system? Tell me." Witness Tüzün said the following:
"Our permits would not be issued without making a certain payment to Kültür AŞ. I made the payment. I made the payments via EFT against the invoice issued by Kültür AŞ. They were calling all the advertising companies, saying that we were going to a new order. They also invited us and stated that the way to get the permission was to make a payment to Kültür AŞ. In other words, they were asked to make a payment to Kültür AŞ in order to obtain the permits, and after these payments were made, the permits started to arrive."
Cem Erdinç, one of the witnesses, stated that he was working as the administrative affairs manager of the pharmaceutical company on the date of the incident, and that there was also a construction department in this company, and said, "Our general manager in the construction department, İlker Aydın, conveyed during the meeting that there was a problem with Şişli Municipality, that there was a problem with the housing here." he said.
Witness Erdinç, who said that they later went to the deputy mayor with their manager İlker Aydın, said, "After this meeting, İlker Aydın followed the process and they stated that they would get back to me about it later. After a certain period of time, İlker Bey said that after the meetings, I would meet with Altan Bey (Consultant Altan Ertürk) and deliver a trust to Altan Bey. Then, Altan Bey gave me a position from Sarıyer. They gave me the relevant amount and he said that "I took the amount and delivered it to Altan Bey's place in Sarıyer." he said.
Mayor Aylan asked, "How much money did you deliver?" Witness Erdinç answered the question: "3.5 million dollars. I delivered it in a single large suitcase." he replied.
After hearing some witnesses, the hearing was postponed until tomorrow.
