The 94th hearing of the 'İmamoğlu criminal organization for profit' case has ended

At the hearing held by the Istanbul 33rd High Criminal Court in the hall opposite the Marmara Closed Penal Institution, the undetained defendant, former Ağaç AŞ Deputy General Manager Metin Aras, made his defense.

Stating that the signing date of the tender file that is the subject of the trial is 15 November 2023, the defendant Aras said that the date of taking office as Deputy General Manager Responsible for Implementation at Ağaç AŞ is 27 November 2023.

Defendant Aras made the following statement: "As the Deputy General Manager Responsible for Implementation, my duty, authority and responsibility until January 1, 2026 consists of monitoring the timely and complete completion of the works in the locations whose tenders have been completed, in accordance with the technical and administrative specifications, in accordance with the technical and administrative specifications, checking whether the progress payments made as a result of the production are correct, and then sending it to the relevant unit within the institution, and I will also send it to the Anatolian and European Side directorates, the chiefdoms under them and the work affiliated with the chieftaincy." "And I was doing it through my technical staff who are competent in their profession."

Stating that no party had any authority in the preparation and completion of the tender, Aras argued that he was not involved in any stage or process of the tender.

The undetained defendant Süleyman Uzun, who made his defense within the scope of the additional indictment, said that he repeated the statements he had given before and explained that he was the owner of SAS Landscape and System companies and that he had a commercial relationship with Ağaç AŞ for many years.

Stating that they did not do any new work for a while after the change of management, but then they started to be given new jobs, Uzun noted that a very serious amount of receivables had accumulated due to the work they did at Ağaç AŞ and their payments were not made regularly.

Uzun stated that they were asked to start some works before the tender was made and said, "We were starting to do the work, the transactions were carried out later. Our employee Tuğrul Doğu Işık was following the tender offer processes and works of my company. I did not hide anything I knew from the investigation stage. I request that my statements and contribution to the clarification of the investigation be evaluated within the scope of effective repentance, and that the provisions of effective remorse be applied to me." made his defense.

Explaining that he was also requested to be punished for the crime of "forgery of official documents", Uzun said, "However, I did not fill out the offer letters and documents in question. I did not prepare or fill out these documents, and I did not give any instructions to anyone to prepare fake documents on behalf of others. Therefore, I have no direct involvement in the act that is considered as forgery of official documents." he declared.

Ali Yakut, the unarrested defendant, stated that he had never had a company that could get a tender throughout his life, and that he was told that he would be given subcontracting work from the tenders to be received, and said, "I already sent the money, and then the operation took place. I could not obtain the money in any way, I was defrauded." he said.

The detained defendant, Fatih Yağcı, also stated that he served as the purchasing chief and claimed that he had no involvement or responsibility in the creation of the main tender.

Yağcı, who claimed that he was not involved in any irregular transactions and was not in any anti-competitive situation, noted that he did not accept any of the allegations.

The unarrested defendant, Muammer Ali Özdil, stated that he was not the person who conducted the technical research, found the companies, prepared the technical specifications or organized the offers, and said that his duty was to carry out the transactions prepared and evaluated by the relevant units within his own field of duty and authority.

Özdil, who noted that he wanted to concentrate his defense on a single point, made the following statement: "I do not deny that I served in the institution here today. I do not deny the transactions that took place under me. I do not avoid the administrative responsibilities that fell upon me during my term of office. However, I request that administrative responsibility and criminal liability not be confused. Supervising the transactions of a manager is one thing, accepting that that manager committed a deliberate crime is another. A general evaluation of tender law is not sufficient for a judgment to be made about me. An expert's opinion on a specific application in the tender is one thing." "It is not enough to criticize it in terms of its legislation. It is not enough for me to be a manager in the institution. It is not enough for me to have my signature on a document. The alleged actions of other people are not enough."

During the hearings, the defense of a total of 315 undetained defendants was completed.

The hearing was postponed until tomorrow to continue taking the defense statements of the defendants who were not detained.