Testimony of İmamoğlu's advisor Murat Ongun to the police revealed: It is irrational to try to derive a crime from these meetings

The Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor's Office has launched an investigation into 106 people over allegations of 'terrorism' and 'corruption' within the IMM. On the morning of March 19, a large number of people, including IMM Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu and IMM Medya A.S. Chairman of the Board Murat Ongun, were detained in a dawn operation.

While Imamoglu and Ongun have been held in custody for four days, Ongun's 131-page police statement has emerged.

In the statement of Imamoglu's advisor Ongun, it was observed that the majority of the accusations directed at him were based on the testimonies of secret witnesses.

During his statement, Ongun was asked questions on many topics such as advertising expenditures, tenders, media relations, and shared location data obtained via signal base stations with Imamoglu, and he clearly rejected the accusations. He stated, 'My frequent meetings with Ekrem Imamoglu are due to his position as the IMM Mayor. Trying to derive a crime from these meetings is irrational.'

In his 131-page statement, Ongun also spoke about the accusations based on secret witness testimonies. Stating that the name of the witness was not disclosed to him, Murat Ongun said, "I cannot even say with what hostility these allegations were produced. They are all baseless, all slander."

Providing details regarding many names shown to him within the scope of the investigation, Ongun noted that he has known Ekrem Imamoglu for 12 years and has been his press advisor since the Beylikduzu era. He said he knew names such as Mehmet Murat Calik and Fatih Keles through municipal work.

Stating that he did not know a significant portion of the people shown to him, Ongun emphasized that he had no commercial relationship with the names he did know:

"I know most of them only through the institutions I work for or public duties. There is no conflict of interest between us."

Stating that he knew some business people due to his close circle or public duties, Murat Ongun expressed that there was no irregularity in his relations with advertisers, municipal employees, and executives of IMM subsidiaries.