A strange indictment... 'As far as I remember, hearsay and rumors'
In the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality (IMM) indictment prepared by the Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor's Office, which covers 402 suspects, a prison sentence of 828 to 2,352 years has been requested for the detained Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu based on 142 separate actions. The document includes 15 secret witnesses, and the testimonies contain hundreds of instances of phrases such as “As far as I remember,” “I don’t know,” and hearsay markers.
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The indictment prepared as part of the investigation conducted by Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor Akın Gürlek has been completed. The 3,900-page document, prepared regarding 402 suspects including Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality (IMM) Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, who was detained on March 19, has been submitted to the court.
The indictment states that 105 suspects are in custody, while 170 have been released under judicial control conditions. It is alleged that the public has suffered a loss of 160 billion TL and 24 million dollars since 2014. The document states that there are 95 properties allegedly belonging to the organization.
142 CHARGES BROUGHT AGAINST İMAMOĞLU
In the indictment, charges related to 142 separate actions were brought against IMM Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu. The prosecution has requested a prison sentence ranging from 828 to 2,352 years for İmamoğlu. It was reported that the hearings will be held in Silivri.
Chief Public Prosecutor Akın Gürlek's statement included the remarks that “the investigation has been completed in a multi-faceted manner” and that “all public damage has been determined with evidence.”
REPETITIVE PATTERNS IN TESTIMONIES
The indictment also included recurring patterns found in the testimonies. It was determined that the phrase “As far as I remember” was used 969 times, “I don’t know” 774 times, hearsay markers 691 times, “I heard” 546 times, and “As far as I know” 516 times in the document.
Additionally, it was noted that the phrases “It could be” appeared 499 times, “I learned” 401 times, “He/she had said” 347 times, “I think” 235 times, “I might be” 136 times, “It was said” 83 times, “According to what I heard” 62 times, “I am thinking” 59 times, “I learned from a source” 52 times, “I do not know” 51 times, “Probably” 37 times, “I had heard” 36 times, “I was hearing” 9 times, and “I felt” 9 times.
15 SECRET WITNESSES INCLUDED
It was reported that there are a total of 15 secret witnesses in the indictment, along with 3,741 pages of supplementary documents. In the file, where the term “secret witness” appears 247 times, the code names of the witnesses were listed as follows:
Meşe
Doğan
İlke
Çınar
Rüzgar
Maun
Gürgen
Mimoza
Köknar
Sekoya
Zeytin
Martı
Kartal
Şahin
Ladin