Information note to Erdoğan from his former legal advisor! He explained the illegality in the investigation

Criminal law expert Prof. Dr. İzzet Özgenç stated that he sent an 'information note' to President and AKP Chairman Recep Tayyip Erdoğan regarding the detention of Istanbul Metropolitan Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, and shared this 'information note' via his social media account.

Özgenç's information note included the following:

-The judicial investigation conducted against the Istanbul Metropolitan Mayor and other relevant persons is not being carried out on a legal basis.

-Prior to this investigation, an examination should have been conducted by the Ministry of Interior's Civil Inspectors regarding the work and transactions within the Metropolitan and district municipalities and their affiliated and related organizations, and judicial investigation processes should have been initiated in confidentiality based on the reports prepared as a result of these examinations.

-After initiating a judicial investigation based on inspector reports, public prosecutors could have made findings and assessments regarding the existence of a criminal organization and its managers and members in the context of the events in question, based on the crimes determined to have been committed. Implementing this method would have ensured that information and documents regarding the work and transactions within the Metropolitan and district municipalities and their affiliated and related organizations were collected and secured in a more reliable manner.

-According to the information I have obtained, there are no investigation permits obtained from the Ministry of Interior or the Istanbul Governorship, as appropriate, regarding the work and transactions that are the subject of the investigations initiated by the Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor's Office.

-Although there are inspector examinations and investigation permits granted for some work and transactions, these decisions have been canceled in judicial reviews.

-If this information is correct; it was not appropriate for the Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor's Office to initiate a judicial investigation process directly, regardless of the reasoning, without an inspector examination conducted in accordance with the procedure and without obtaining the necessary permits regarding the work and transactions within the Metropolitan and district municipalities and their affiliated and related organizations.

-Confidentiality has been violated during this investigation process. In the investigation in question, a method is being followed that aims to convince the public regarding the crimes accepted to have been committed, rather than the purpose of investigating the material truth and determining whether a crime has been committed.

-Information obtained in some way regarding the work and transactions subject to the investigation, which is not possible to obtain through normal journalistic activity, is being made the subject of news and programs on various television channels, and an attempt is being made to create an opinion in society that the persons under investigation are guilty.

-I must also state that many issues, which should essentially be handled independently of each other, have been handled collectively in this investigation process. This situation constitutes an obstacle to the healthy conduct of the initiated investigation.

-The investigation initiated by the Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor's Office regarding the well-known lateral transfer and diploma forgery also carries political rather than legal purposes. The work and transactions related to the lateral transfer in question can only be subject to investigation according to the provisions of Article 58 of the Higher Education Law No. 2547.

-The Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor's Office has made an event that is not its duty the subject of an investigation.

-The illegality of the Istanbul University Rectorate's decision regarding the cancellation of the diploma is self-evident.