İmamoğlu's lawyer explains the injustices: 'Gossip, hearsay...'

Mehmet Pehlivan, the lawyer for Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality (IMM) Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, who is currently in custody, made important statements regarding his client's police testimony. Pehlivan said that İmamoğlu's statement has debunked the perception that has been attempted to be created in the public eye for days.

REACTION TO SECRET WITNESS

Emphasizing that the statement has overturned the perception that has been attempted to be created for days, Pehlivan said, "With the detention carried out, the initial aim was to damage Mr. İmamoğlu's reputation in the eyes of society. Subsequently, the secret witness regulation found in Article 58 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CMK) was completely abused, and a 'Secret Witness' was manufactured. Moreover, instead of reading these witnesses' statements as a whole, they were selected and presented in pieces under a narrative to try and generate questions from them. Likewise, an audio recording whose origin and location are unknown, and which Mr. İmamoğlu is not a party to and has no knowledge of, as well as HTS records presented in an extremely complex manner, and statements whose authors are unknown and which have been torn from their entirety and context, clearly and openly reveal how unlawful this investigation is and that it reflects political concerns rather than legal ones."

LAWYERS ARE NOT INFORMED, BUT MEDIA IS FED

He pointed out that while individuals listed as suspects in the file and their lawyers cannot obtain even a single piece of information about the case, almost all events that are the subject of the investigation are being fed to the public by media outlets close to the government in a way that is far from the truth. Pehlivan said, "The Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor's Office also turned the content of the investigation into a press release and announced the alleged crimes to the public. The prosecutor's office even went a step further and used the term 'criminal organization leader' in the aforementioned press release, which has no place in law or legislation, thereby violating Mr. İmamoğlu's presumption of innocence and right to be free from stigma. None of these can be explained by the principles of a state of law."

PASSED COURT OF ACCOUNTS AND COUNCIL OF STATE AUDITS

Stating that "What is being attempted is an effort to create something that does not exist," Pehlivan noted the following:

"The investigation file has been filled with irrelevant documents that cannot serve as evidence of a crime, and an attempt has been made to create a perception in the public eye as if there were a comprehensive investigation. Efforts have been made to portray the activities of the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality as the activities of a criminal organization. For example, tenders that were audited by the Court of Accounts and found to be in compliance with regulations, and certain transactions and actions that were found to be lawful by the Council of State after the investigation permit was lifted, have been made the subject of accusations. It is absolutely unacceptable that even baseless allegations stemming from personal grievances, for which decisions of non-prosecution have already been issued, are being made the subject of this investigation."

"GOSSIP AND HEARSAY"

"The witness statements in the investigation, just like the secret witness statements, have been selected and presented by being torn from their integrity and context. The fact that the names of non-secret witnesses are not included is not only against the law but also shows that the Prosecutor's Office does not trust its own witnesses who make statements based solely on gossip-like hearsay, and that it aims to unlawfully hide its witnesses during this detention process. It is also openly apparent that the witnesses are speaking within a pre-prepared language and template rather than from personal observation. All of these are interrogation methods clearly prohibited under both national and international law."

"We must state that these methods constitute a one-to-one example of the judicial practice prior to July 2016. As a result; this investigation, which is based on unreal allegations such as illegal detention, pseudo-evidence, secret witnesses, witnesses whose names are not specified despite not being secret and who are thus hidden, and audio recordings that were not obtained legally and have no connection to Mr. İmamoğlu, has no logical, legal, or convincing aspect. This investigation is a violation of the right to a fair trial. This violation is the prevention of access to justice by the judiciary and the destruction of the rule of law, contrary to the Constitution and fundamental rights and freedoms."