At the hearing held by the Istanbul 33rd High Criminal Court in the hall opposite the Marmara Closed Penal Institution, the defendant Derya Dağdeviren, who was not detained, made her defense.
Defendant Dağdeviren said that he did not accept the criminal charges against him.
Stating that he wanted to file a criminal complaint against Orhan Yıldırım, who was detained within the scope of the corruption investigation against Esenyurt Municipality, Dağdeviren said, "Orhan Yıldırım from Esenyurt Municipality was continuing his life by taking jobs worth nearly 1 billion liras before he was taken into custody. T.B. is also his secret partner." he claimed.
Unarrested defendant Ahmet Sari also stated that his monthly income is 3-4 million lira.
Sari continued his defense as follows: "We established the Havaist company in 2018, made the investments and started operating. My first contact with the new management and my first fight was due to this job. After the elections, Ertan Yıldız wanted to meet about the Havaist job. This is how I met Ertan Yıldız for the first time and I was forced to withdraw from the job at the meeting. When he did not agree to withdraw from the Havaist job, retroactive invoices started to be sent in November 2019. We objected, mutually. "Warning letters were issued. Unlike other tariffs, Havaist tariff was not increased. They started to pressure me to quit my job."
Stating that IMM opened a vehicle and construction equipment rental tender in December 2019, they entered this tender and won, Sari said, "The updated version of the contract price was approximately 750 million lira. This tender we won was unlawfully canceled by IMM on the grounds that competition conditions did not exist." he declared.
Sari explained that small payments were made from time to time until 2022, but he resorted to enforcement action because his receivables were largely unpaid.
'YOU CAN'T GET THE MONEY AT ALL, AND EVEN IF YOU DO, IT WON'T BE OF ANY USE.' STATEMENTS WERE MADE AS "
Stating that Ertan Yıldız told him that he wanted to meet with him towards the end of 2022, and that he went to the meeting, Sari said, "When I went to the meeting, Fatih Keleş was also there. In this meeting, Ertan Yıldız said in summary: 'You enter the tenders and win, but you see that you cannot receive your payments. To get your payments, you either pay money or you deal with the enforcement file from the enforcement file like this. You will either not get the money at all, or even if you do, it will not be of any use to you." He made statements like this." he said.
Defendant Sari continued his defense as follows: "He claimed that the meeting I mentioned at the prosecutor's office took place on October 25, 2022. However, I remember that this meeting took place at a later date, towards the end of November. Because, as I explained in my statement during the investigation phase, I had to pay tribute for the first time in order to receive progress payment at the end of November. Shortly after the date of the meeting, I had to pay tribute for the first time. Ultimately, on the dates I stated in my statement during the investigation phase, the amounts of money I specified were collected. I had to deliver it in cash in order to be able to do so. I would like to point out that every time I received a progress payment, I contacted Ertan Yıldız or Fatih Keleş. After the end of 2022, I always requested the progress payments in the usual way. My only interlocutors regarding this issue were Ertan Yıldız and Fatih Keleş. They blocked the payment process at that time and made it possible for me to open the process.
Saying that the payments he made had nothing to do with winning a tender, Sari argued that he had to pay money to collect his receivables.
Sari stated that he was not asked for money because the elections were approaching and that he did not pay anyone for this reason, and claimed that he did not receive confidential information from anyone regarding the tenders and did not meet with anyone on this issue.
Explaining that he met Ali Sukas during the ongoing work of the company and the collection of receivables, Sari stated that Sukas's wife requested a vehicle to be used in election campaigns.
Sari stated that he initially did not approve of this request due to concerns about being misunderstood, and suggested that vehicles be procured from other places, and later stated that he gave a small number of passenger vehicles for less than a month.
At the hearing, after Sari completed her defense, the question and answer session began.
The public prosecutor asked, "Is it true that you gave a total of 169 million to Ertan Yıldız and Fatih Keleş?" Sari replied, "That's right." he replied.
"ERTAN YILDIZ TROUBLED FROM ME"
When asked what kind of coercion she was subjected to regarding extortion, the defendant Sari said, "I have a past as Havaist. They took my job away. Because I knew Ertan Yıldız very well, because I knew what a cruel man he was, Ertan Yıldız officially extorted money from me. In other words, they took it by force." he said.
"I WOULD DELIVER THE MONEY I GIVEN TO KELEŞ TO THE BUILDING IN BAKIRKÖY AND THEIR PLACE IN FLORYA"
When the prosecutor asked about the delivery process of the money and how it was delivered to Fatih Keleş and Ertan Yıldız, Sari said, "We would talk to Ertan Yıldız on the phone, he would tell me. He would send Ziya Gökmen's driver or his own driver. He would give it from the garage. I would deliver the money I gave to Fatih Keleş to the building in Bakırköy and to their place in Florya." he said.
When the prosecutor asked whether he delivered the money or whether he was using the vehicle, Sari said that he did not use the vehicle and that he delivered it himself.
"ERTAN YILDIZ WAS THE FIRST LIVE ON THE FIFTH FLOOR. HE WAS THE SHADOW PRESIDENT THERE"
When asked for what purpose the money was taken, Sari said, "From what I heard from Ertan's mouth, they had a system. They were saying that they had to collect money to keep this system alive." he said.
Asked by the prosecutor whether Fatih Keleş had a room in the Bakırköy Municipality Building, Sari said, "Ertan Yıldız was the first person to live on the fifth floor. He was the shadow mayor there. All things, in quotation marks, that is my guess. He is cooler than Ekrem Bey. In other words, he was cooler, more effective, more authoritative than Ekrem Bey's words." he replied.
When asked by the prosecutor whether he had knowledge about Fatih Keleş's job description, Sari said, "We, as the presidential advisors, knew these. Ertan Yıldız as well. Ertan was responsible for the subsidiaries. All units were under him. In other words, the subsidiaries were under him. He would manage them all." he declared.
The hearing continues with the defense of the other undetained defendants.
