Özgür Çelik Testified at Çağlayan Courthouse, Saying 'We Told the Truth'

In his statement after the Üsküdar Deputy Mayor election, New Party Istanbul Provincial Chairman Özgür Çelik said that Municipal Council Member Ayhan Aydın, who resigned from the CHP and joined the AK Party, called him crying and said, "The prosecutor threatened me with arrest, my son and my wife are disabled, who will take care of them? I surrendered to them because there was no one to look after them." Following this statement, the Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor's Office launched an investigation ex officio and took Ayhan Aydın's statement. In his statement as "complainant", Aydın flatly denied Çelik's words and said, "I was not threatened by any person, institution or authority. The allegation that a public prosecutor or another public official threatened me is completely unfounded."

'WE TOLD THE TRUTH'

Following Aydın's statement, the prosecutor's office instructed the police to take the statement of Özgür Çelik as a "suspect" and asked Çelik to be present at the courthouse. New Party Istanbul Provincial Chairman Özgür Çelik came to the Istanbul Palace of Justice in Çağlayan yesterday morning with his lawyer and accompanying party members. Making a statement to the press here, Çelik said, "Gazi Mustafa Kemal Atatürk has a saying at the entrance of the Faculty of Political Sciences of Istanbul University, where I studied, 'Do not be afraid to tell the truth'. We told the truth in front of Üsküdar Municipality. Now, we will give our statement at the prosecutor's office together with our lawyers and friends and we will tell the truth here too."