Ayhan Bora Kaplan Trial Begins

Müyesser YILDIZ - 12punto.com.tr

The Ankara 32nd High Criminal Court session held today in the courtroom inside the Sincan Prison campus began with a 1-hour delay.

At the beginning of today's hearing, where all defendants, including Ayhan Bora Kaplan, were present in the courtroom, the Presiding Judge announced that they intended to hold hearings throughout this week, but that they would not hold a hearing on Wednesday at the request of the 22nd High Criminal Court, which is hearing the Kobani case, as that court has a session that day. The Judge also stated that 3 lawyers would be allowed for each defendant, noting that Ayhan Bora Kaplan and Barış Kurt have 5 lawyers, and that they could not accept statements from two of them, so he requested that they decide on the 3 lawyers who would present the defense.

As the process of identifying the defendants and taking their defense statements began, Ayhan Bora Kaplan's lawyer, Umut Köroğlu, took the floor and claimed that it was unlawful to use phone wiretaps as evidence in this case by having them re-transcribed, when they should have been destroyed in a file for which the Prosecutor's Office had previously issued a decision of non-prosecution.

When asked for his opinion on this objection, the Prosecutor requested that it be rejected, as the decision should be made along with the verdict. The court unanimously rejected the request, to be evaluated along with the final verdict.

The hearing continued with the defense statements of the defendants in alphabetical order.

While the first 5 defendants to present their defense denied the allegations against them and claimed they were not members of any criminal organization, Barış Kurt, who was an AKP municipal council member in Çankaya Municipality between 2014-2018, said, "This is the first time in my life I have entered a police station or a prison. I am an engineer, I graduated from 3 universities. I have a doctorate and international publications. I am in shock, I feel like I'm in a dream." He then stated that he knew Ayhan Bora Kaplan from a bar he went to with his girlfriend.

Upon this, the Presiding Judge asked why he had said in his statement to the prosecutor's office that he did not know Kaplan.

When Barış Kurt replied, "I had a political duty at that time, I was a municipal council member. I have a political future and a career," the Judge reacted sharply, asking, "What does that have to do with it? Is Bora Kaplan problematic? What does it have to do with your political career?" and upon Barış Kurt's silence, added, "You have no answer."

Subsequently, Barış Kurt replied, "I do. Let me explain who I am; then ask whatever you want," and told his life story. While claiming that the expert report prepared by the police distorted the HTS records and misled the court, Kurt cried, saying, "It is a sin."

Kurt used the terms "street kid, ungrateful, gypsy, ruined by smoking marijuana" for Erkan Doğan, who testified against him, and emphasized that the secret witness's statement had also been tampered with, noting that what was read to him during the interrogation was different from what the Presiding Judge read, saying, "Isn't this a crime? Why are you tampering with it? See, if you tamper with it too much, God will trip you up like this."

At the beginning of the afternoon session of the hearing, the Presiding Judge warned the lawyers, stating that if there were any defendants not in custody who did not attend the hearing, an arrest warrant would be issued for them, saying, "Let them come and present their defense." Regarding the trial schedule, the Judge said that if the defense statements were completed this week by taking the statements of 15 defendants per day, the lawyers' statements would be taken next week, and then a date would be set for the Prosecutor to present his opinion on the merits.

When it was Bora Kaplan's turn for defense, the Presiding Judge said, "Dear lawyers, would you like us to listen to Bora last? It would be better if I took Bora last. He will have heard everyone. I will leave Bora for last."

Upon the response of Kaplan's lawyers that "It won't take more than 1 hour," the following dialogue took place:

Judge: "If we start with Bora today, it will only just finish. Let's leave it for tomorrow."

Bora Kaplan: "I'm going to read it anyway."

Judge: "If you are going to read it, give it to me, I will read it too. Take your seat, Bora. Let's leave it for tomorrow or for the very end. It would be better for you. You will have heard everyone. You will have the right to reply."

After these words from the Judge, Bora Kaplan took his seat without presenting his defense, and the hearing continued with the defense statements of the other defendants.

"WE STUDIED FOR NOTHING"

When one of the defendants, Cemil Kumaşcıoğlu, explained that he had opened his own venues after working as an operations and responsible manager at Bora Kaplan's venues in the past, the Presiding Judge asked the following question:

"How much money does an operations manager make? Gaziosmanpaşa and such are very expensive places, the venues there are not cheap. How does an operations manager open these?"

When Kumaşçıoğlu said that in addition to his salary, they received a share from the common tips, and thus earned more than 400 thousand per month, the Judge said, "Then we studied for nothing..."

"WHOSE VENUE HAVE I SEIZED"

During Kumaşoğlu's interrogation, when the Presiding Judge asked Bora Kaplan about the bars he owned, Kaplan explained the following:

"In 2014, Cemil and his friends called me and offered, 'There is an empty place, it will do business, let's have live music.' Upon this, we opened Tren Bar. My first venue was Makyaj. I built them all from scratch myself. They tell me, 'You seized people's shops.' Let them show me one shop; whose venue have we seized?"

"POLICE OFFICERS SHOULD BE REMOVED FROM THE COURTROOM"

Meanwhile, the defense lawyers noted that the police officers who conducted the investigation were sitting in the courtroom in the complainants' section, which caused anxiety among their clients, and also that there was a possibility that these police officers would be heard as witnesses, and requested that these police officers be identified and removed from the courtroom.

The Prosecutor, whose opinion was sought, expressed the view that the request should be rejected on the grounds that there is no mandatory provision in the Criminal Procedure Code (CMK) regarding this and that hearings must be open to everyone due to the principle of publicity.

The court also rejected the request on the grounds that there was no possibility of changing the evidence identified during the investigation phase, the principle of the publicity of hearings, and that there was no concrete reason for the police to be removed.

After this decision, a defense lawyer drew attention to the fact that while the police were sitting on the complainant side, the defendants' relatives were standing, and requested that they be allowed to sit in that section. While the Presiding Judge said, "We don't see any harm in it, they can sit," he warned, "And should they sit there and fight with the complainants' relatives, Counsel, think about that too."

After the defense statements of 15 defendants were taken, the Presiding Judge ended the hearing to continue tomorrow, while making the following interesting decision:

"We said 10:00 for today because the first day has no sin; but from tomorrow on, we will start at 09:00. Everyone should make their preparations accordingly."

News Source: Müyesser Yıldız