Interesting claim from Bora Kaplan: 'The police officer who leaked information to Cevheri Güven made threats, the found phone was fabricated'

Müyesser Yıldız - 12punto.com.tr

At the beginning of the hearing held by the Ankara 32nd High Criminal Court at the Sincan Prison campus, the Presiding Judge requested that the defendants make brief statements, noting that they would likely want to present their defenses due to the change in both the entire panel and the prosecutor.

All defendants, primarily secret witness Serdar Serçelik (codenamed M7) and Bora Kaplan, reiterated their previous defenses.

Sertçelik explained how the police made him a secret witness, what the then-KOM (Anti-Smuggling and Organized Crime) Branch Manager Şevket Demircan offered him after he fled abroad, and stated that the then-investigating and indictment prosecutor Mustafa Kaya made several offers for him to accept a "found phone" allegedly belonging to him.

Bora Kaplan, who was sentenced to 68 years in prison on charges of leading an organization, also accused the police officers who conducted the operation, prosecutor Mustafa Kaya, and the court's first presiding judge, Mehmet Güven. Stating that the police showed him his photo in front of the TRT building during the July 15 coup attempt during his interrogation and asked, "Where did you get these weapons, from whom? For what purpose were you there?", Kaplan argued that this revealed their malicious intent and spoke as follows:

"The police managed the opposition media very well; they created such an atmosphere that they declared us villains. This file started with prejudice and execution from the very beginning, and it continued that way. It is clear that all the statements against me came from the same hand and that we were being manipulated. They have lost their way so much that they were going to turn the old secret witness into a new secret witness. They have a grudge, a problem with the nationalist wing."

Bora Kaplan also made the following claim regarding the found phone, which is said to belong to Serdar Sertçelik:

"We are inside, but we hear things. When Serkan Dinçer was in prison during the trial where they were being judged for leaking information and documents to Cevheri Güven, he told these police officers, 'If you don't save me, I will reveal everything, I will burn you all,' and that is when they fabricated this phone. It needs to be revealed who made this phone."

Kaplan recalled that Mustafa Öztaş, who was heard as a witness, testified that fingerprints were found on the bag and the note inside the found phone, and that a document on the phone showed a superior user. He also alleged that one of the defendants in the case, former police officer Kozan Umut Öztürk, was a close friend of Öztaş and that they wanted to save him as well through the correspondence on the found phone.

Where Did the Lawyers' Video Come From?

Volkan Şener, the lawyer for Muhammet Kaplan—who was sentenced in another case and whose release was decided in this file in recent months—requested that the digital devices of the police officers, who are both complainants and defendants in the case, be brought into the file, and explained the following:

"When the hearings began in 2024, we went out for a meal as lawyers. A video of this meal, which was secretly recorded, was found on the digital devices of the then-Ankara Deputy Police Chief Murat Çelik. We don't know what else will come out."

Presiding Judge: "We Are Not Taking It Personally"

Baran Tansu, the lawyer for Erhan Bakioğlu, who was arrested within the scope of the found phone accusation and released after 5 months, compared this case to the February 6 earthquake, saying, "Don't take this personally, but this court is also a wreck of a court in terms of the file; it is the February 6 of the judiciary. The defendants are under this legal wreck and are trying to get out." The Presiding Judge replied, "We are not taking it personally."

Lawyer Tansu, while reminding that Erhan Bakioğlu was a close friend of Erkan Doğan, the complainant in the case whose teeth were allegedly pulled out by Bora Kaplan, said the following:

"Erkan Doğan is the spiritual son of prosecutor Mustafa Kaya. Although Erhan Baltacıoğlu was detained due to the found phone, he did not ask a single question about it; he always asked about Erkan Doğan. It didn't stop there; he called Erhan Baltacıoğlu's wife and asked her too. He called Erhan Baltacıoğlu 'Selo's man.' Who is Selo? Is it Selahattin Demirtaş? We later learned that it was Selahattin Yılmaz, who is under investigation in Istanbul. The first operation in this case is an operation of ambition and revenge. The found phone operation, on the other hand, is for a forbidden love, that is, to save the police officers."

"Where Is the Phone?"

Duran Göçer, the lawyer for one of the defendants, retired police officer Önder Polat, emphasized that his own photos and images were also in the file and said, "This is a dirty file."

Lawyer Göçer also noted the following regarding the found phone:

"Where is this phone; is it in the court safe, in the judicial repository, at the police station, or at the gendarmerie? I have asked twice before, and it has not been answered. We now want your court to inform us about this matter."

Conflict Among Defendants

Upon Bora Kaplan's claim that "Kozan Umut Öztürk is a close friend of Mustafa Öztaş. They fabricated the found phone to save him," Onur Ülker, the lawyer for Öztürk, who stated that he came to present a defense, said the following:

"My client's name has been mentioned twice. He has never come side-by-side with the police officers who conducted the operation against him, and he never will. It is impossible for my client to act with a group that sees him as an enemy. They are trying to distort things by saying he is a friend of Mustafa Öztaş. The person who introduced the two is retired police officer Önder Polat. Someone is sending messages and asking him to withdraw his complaint about the found phone. Money is also being demanded. I am a witness to this as well. I will present it with evidence. My client has never been involved in the found phone business. When asked, he stated that if it is a setup, he is a complainant against those who set it up."

After the defense lawyers, the statements of the lawyers for the police officers who are complainants/defendants in the case were taken.

Fehmi Burak, the lawyer for Commissioner Gökhan Karaca, stated that they were against the request to hear secret witness Ü5 in court, saying, "He has already been heard. I don't think he will add anything to the file. If he is to be heard, let him be heard in the session where our clients are present." Noting that his client had no negligence in the escape of Serdar Sertçelik, Lawyer Burak argued that Sertçelik fled consciously, thinking he would be punished by the organization, and that the necessary reports regarding the found phone had been obtained, and that Sertçelik accepted what suited him from the correspondence there and rejected what did not. Upon this, Sertçelik shouted, "He is lying."

Recep Öksüz, the lawyer for former KOM Branch Deputy Manager Şevket Demircan, stated that his client, who started his duty two days before the Bora Kaplan operation, did not know the team he worked with or the defendants, and therefore it was impossible for him to harbor any hostility. He said that while no investigation was opened into the Witness Protection Program and the judicial control unit regarding Serdar Sertçelik's escape, this team was directly targeted.

Who Is in FETÖ's F-6?

Cengiz Varol, the lawyer for complainant-defendant former Ankara Deputy Police Chief Murat Çelik, while answering the allegations of hostility, emphasized that such an operation could not be carried out without the permission of the Minister of Interior, the MIT (National Intelligence Organization), and the provincial police chief.

Noting that the statement given by Serdar Sertçelik with the code M7 was confirmed by the police's 186-page research report, Lawyer Varol argued that it was confirmed by reports and HTS records that the found phone also belonged to Sertçelik, so there was no need to examine this at every session.

While repeating that Murat Çelik was coded as F-5, which means "opponent" by FETÖ, Lawyer Varol said, "F-6 is already the President, Mr. Devlet Bahçeli, and the MIT Undersecretary."

After the statements were completed, the prosecutor, whose opinion was asked regarding the final arguments, expressed the opinion that most of the requests, especially the request to bring the police officers' WhatsApp correspondence, should be rejected. He requested that the hearing of the secret witness codenamed Ü5 be evaluated after asking whether his secret witness status continued, and that the detention of Bora Kaplan and Serdar Sertçelik be continued.

Bora Kaplan, who gave his statement against the prosecutor's opinion, stated that he was already detained in the organization file and said, "Release me from the fake phone that has been sufficiently clarified."

Serdar Sertçelik, who reminded that he was detained for both the alleged organization leadership and the found phone, spoke as follows:

"I was in prison when the correspondence on the found phone was made. What more can there be than this? As for the organization leadership, there is no evidence other than the statement given as a secret witness. I became an organization leader with my own statement. I request my release and acquittal from both."

Umut Köroğlu, Bora Kaplan's lawyer, reacted to the prosecutor's opinion on rejecting the inclusion of the police officers' digital devices in the file, saying, "Challenge accepted; if those phone correspondences do not exist, if fake evidence was not produced, and if Serdar Sertçelik was not directed and his escape abroad was not turned a blind eye to, I will quit being Bora Kaplan's lawyer."

After a 1.5-hour break, the Presiding Judge announced that it was decided that the secret witness codenamed Ü5 would be heard in the next session, that a letter would be written to the Supreme Court of Appeals to prioritize the appeal review of the organization file, that the requests to take action against Mustafa Öztaş for perjury and to remove the statement given by Serdar Sertçelik with the code M7 from the file would be evaluated with the verdict; and that the requests to give the found phone in the judicial repository and the police officers' digital devices to the defendants were rejected. The court, which also decided to continue the detention of Bora Kaplan and Serdar Sertçelik, adjourned the hearing to December 28.

Müyesser YILDIZ

September 3, 2026