CHP's Özgür Çelik reacts to the Aziz İhsan Aktaş case: 'There is no concrete evidence, it's a setup!'

The first hearing of the case known to the public as the “Aziz İhsan Aktaş Criminal Organization,” which began on January 27, concluded as of today.

In the trial, which started with 200 defendants, 33 of whom were in custody, including CHP mayors, 9 individuals, including Zeydan Karalar, were released following an interim evaluation conducted in the second week.

CHP Istanbul Provincial Chair Özgür Çelik made a statement regarding the case on his X account.

''WE SAW THAT THERE IS NO CONCRETE EVIDENCE''

Çelik used the following expressions:

''The first hearing of the case, which has been ongoing for about a month and is known to the public as the Aziz İhsan Aktaş case, has ended. We watched and followed it from beginning to end;

We saw that there is no concrete evidence regarding any of the allegations.

We saw that not a single penny has left the coffers of the municipalities.

We saw that our mayors have no financial transactions they cannot account for.

We saw that our mayors pushed away the 'sell your party and be free' offers with the back of their hands, and that they are paying the price for this.

We saw the suffering of our families who have been waiting for their loved ones for a year, and the pride peculiar to the righteous who maintain their upright stance despite this.

This case, in which the same methods as the setup cases we know very well from the past are used, is also rotten, hollow, and will be remembered with shame. Every one of our mayors should have been released today. While the person they call the leader of the criminal organization walks around freely outside, we do not accept that our mayors and companions, whose place in this case has not even been established and against whom there is not a single claim other than whistleblower statements that are barely more than gossip, are being tried while in custody. We know that they are holding our mayors simply because they were elected and did not become partners in slander. We are proud of every one of our mayors who built a barricade with their honor so that democracy may live in Turkey and politics is not designed by the judiciary, and who have been deprived of their freedom. We will take them all out of those dungeons as soon as possible. CHP is the people, it cannot be taken over!''