Arrest warrant issued for famous public contractor!..

Our journalist colleague Alican Uludağ, who was detained in Ankara—where he lives and works—on charges of “insulting the President, publicly spreading misleading information, and degrading state institutions,” and who was subsequently taken to Istanbul and imprisoned solely for “insulting the President,” has been in Silivri for 57 days. This is despite the fact that the court that accepted his indictment declared itself “incompetent” and ruled that the case should be heard in Ankara.

There was a case that Alican had been following before his arrest. The defendant is Murat Çeçen, the Chairman of CCN Holding and a Board Member of IC İçtaş İnşaat, known for his proximity to the government and for securing major public tenders such as the Yavuz Sultan Selim Bridge and Northern Marmara Motorway Project, Antalya Airport, the New York Turkish House, the Akkuyu Nuclear Power Plant, and the 2nd stage of the Ankara-Istanbul High-Speed Train Project. The subject of the case, which was opened after 7 years, was the allegation that he threatened a businessman, C.D., who worked as a subcontractor on the construction of the Mersin and Bilkent City Hospitals and was demanding his payments.

Alican had reported on the first hearing of this case in January, 35 days before he was arrested.

To summarize the allegations regarding the incident: Murat Çeçen allegedly threatened C.D. on February 22, 2018, at the Ankara Bilkent City Hospital construction site. C.D. recorded these threats on his phone and subsequently filed a criminal complaint with the Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor's Office for “insult, robbery, deprivation of liberty, and threats.” However, no case was opened against Çeçen for a long time; he did not go to testify when summoned by the prosecutor's office, and eventually, a decision of non-prosecution was issued regarding him.

When the Ankara 4th Criminal Court of Peace overturned this decision on July 19, 2023, upon the objection of C.D.’s lawyer, Abdullah Kaya, and a new investigation was opened, the prosecutor's office was still unable to take Murat Çeçen’s statement. As a result of the investigation, an indictment was filed on May 7, 2025, solely for the crime of “threat,” requesting a prison sentence of 6 months to 2 years.

While Murat Çeçen did not attend that first hearing in January on the grounds that he was abroad, his lawyers requested that he be heard via rogatory commission in Istanbul at the next hearing since he resides there. They also argued that even if the audio recording, which was C.D.’s evidence, were accepted, the statements in the recording did not constitute a threat.

The court decided that Murat Çeçen should be heard via SEGBİS (Audio and Visual Information System) and that a voice sample should be taken for expert analysis to determine whether the voice belonged to him, adjourning the hearing to February 27.

HE DID NOT ATTEND THE SECOND HEARING EITHER

Since Alican is in prison, let me remind you point by point of what happened at the second hearing, which I attended in his place.

- Murat Çeçen’s lawyers, who sent a petition to the court 15 days after the first session, requested that his statement be taken via rogatory commission from a hotel address they provided in Istanbul, rather than via SEGBİS, and that the request for a voice sample be abandoned so that “the trial does not drag on”...

- In the report prepared and sent to the court by the police officers assigned to take the voice sample on February 19, it was stated that Çeçen was called on his phone, his secretary said he was out of town and would call back when he returned, but no one called; after waiting for a reasonable time, he was called again, and this time it was stated that his lawyer was handling the matter. Upon calling the lawyer, the lawyer said, “He resides in Istanbul, we are handling the procedures with the Üsküdar District Police Department, we will have a letter of return without action written for this.” Since no such letter arrived, they went to the address specified in the document, but since no one opened the door, the voice recording could not be obtained...

- Before the hearing on February 27, his lawyers stated that Murat Çeçen could not attend the hearing via SEGBİS because he was abroad, and repeated their requests to abandon the decisions to hear him via SEGBİS and to take a voice sample...

- On the day of the hearing, only C.D.’s lawyer, Abdullah Kaya, came to the court. Meanwhile, it was said that the judge had gone on leave, so the hearing would not be held and a new date would be set. Upon the insistence of Lawyer Kaya, a temporary judge sat in the court clerk's office and prepared an 8-item report as if the case had been heard and the prosecutor’s opinion had been taken, adjourning the hearing to April 15...

I ended the article where I conveyed this whole process by saying, “I hope Alican regains his freedom by then so he can watch and write about this hearing himself.”

Unfortunately, this wish of mine did not come true, and I also attended the third session held the day before yesterday.

THEY LEARNED 35 DAYS IN ADVANCE THAT THE JUDGE WOULD BE ON SICK LEAVE

Before coming to what happened at the hearing, let me convey additional information regarding the process point by point.

- On January 19, the court sent a writ to the Gölbaşı Police Department for Murat Çeçen to be forcibly brought to the second hearing on February 27...

- Again, on January 30, the court requested from the Üsküdar Police Department that the words in the audio recording, such as “I never leave anyone’s rights unpaid, look, I am Murat Çeçen... What would I do, I would have had you removed from your house that day, do you understand?.. I will f... the guy... No one can call me weak, do you understand, I will handle you in such a way here, I swear... Whatever your problem is, whatever your gripe is, you will tell my man, my man will come to me, I will think about what needs to be done to you, I am giving you one last chance, you have no other chance after this, know that if you accept, you accept, if you don’t, you are my enemy, I will treat you differently the first time I see you, okay, look, I am telling you... No no, I won’t leave you wounded, don’t worry, that’s why I will call my man, I will call Hakan, I will call Suphi, whatever your gripe is, you will tell them, you will write it there, 5 items we couldn’t agree on, 4 items, they will bring it to me, you will write what you want on a paper, they will write theirs, I will sit down and decide, do you understand, I won’t leave the guy wounded or anything, okay, that’s why this is your last chance... I will f... the guy’s mouth,” be repeated by Murat Çeçen and sent URGENTLY...

- In the report prepared by the police, who were instructed to forcibly bring Murat Çeçen to the hearing on February 27 at 14:00, on the day of the hearing, it was stated that Çeçen was called on his phone at 13:59 on February 27, no one answered, he had been visited at his address on January 23 but could not be found, he was called by phone but could not be reached, then his lawyer was called, and the lawyer said, “We received information that the judge is on sick leave, for this reason, we will submit an excuse to the court and will not attend the hearing”; in short, it was explained that Murat Çeçen could not be reached at his address...

- On March 2, the court sent another writ to the Üsküdar District Police Department asking about the status of Murat Çeçen’s voice recording sample...

- On March 9, Murat Çeçen’s lawyer submitted a petition to the Üsküdar District Police Department stating, “Although a request was made regarding the taking of the voice recording, due to the fact that the client is mostly abroad due to the international projects he is carrying out, and also because we have requested the court to reverse the interim decision regarding the taking of the voice recording with our attached petition, and the court has not yet made a decision regarding this request of ours, the requirement of the writ could not be fulfilled,” and requested that the court’s writ be returned without action...

- On March 10, the Üsküdar Police Department prepared a report as follows: “In the investigation conducted regarding the person named Murat Çeçen; the person in question could not be reached at the address in question, the person’s lawyer was reached by phone, and when information was given about the document in question; ‘My client is not in our country right now due to a project that is ongoing abroad. We have declared to the relevant court that the voice recording said to belong to my client is correct. If the court has a request again, we can fulfill the requested demand when Murat Çeçen returns from abroad.’ was said. Due to the person in question being abroad, the instruction requested in the document could not be fulfilled.”...

- Simultaneously, Çeçen’s lawyers also sent a petition to the court: “Although a writ was written for the summoning of the defendant’s voice samples to be used as a basis for examination regarding whether the contents of the audio recordings subject to the crime belong to the defendant; we request that this interim decision be abandoned in order to prevent the trial from dragging on, given that neither our client nor we, the lawyers, have any objection to the contents of the audio recordings and we accept the audio contents.”

Like a movie, isn't it?!

WHEN HE DID NOT COME TO THE THIRD HEARING EITHER

We have come to the third session held the day before yesterday...

Murat Çeçen did not attend again. The judge asked why he did not connect, stating that a letter with a request for SEGBİS had been written to the Istanbul Anatolian 75th Criminal Court of First Instance to take the defendant’s defense.

After Çeçen’s lawyers stated that they had not received a notification, they again requested that a letter be written to take the statement via rogatory commission instead of SEGBİS. While the lawyers wanted the audio recording, which was obtained unlawfully, not to be relied upon, they said; “The complainant, who was heard in the first session, said that he downloaded an application in the construction site toilet in 2018 and made this recording. Even in today’s 5G environment, downloading this program is not realistic. It is clear that it was done to create a crime. We had accepted the listening of the audio recordings to show this irregularity. Yes, the audio recordings belong to the client, therefore the interim decision regarding taking a voice sample should be reversed.”

Complainant C.D.’s lawyer, Abdullah Kaya, reminded that Murat Çeçen’s defense could not be taken even during the investigation phase and spoke as follows:

“In all the procedures carried out to take his defense, he does not attend by declaring that he is abroad. It is clear that he is a fugitive, he is not coming. SEGBİS was mentioned, a forced bringing order was issued; but the police and gendarmerie cannot bring him. The other side wants his statement to be taken via rogatory commission so as not to face us. Our request for him to be heard via SEGBİS continues. They were saying the audio recordings were suspicious. Now they are accepting them. Thus, the material event has emerged. However, we still need to ask the defendant; he might say, ‘It wasn’t me, my lawyers accepted it.’ This audio recording constitutes the crime of robbery. Therefore, a decision of incompetence should be made and the file should be sent to the High Criminal Court.”

Murat Çeçen’s lawyers, who took the floor again, also said the following:

“All international travels are presented to the court as documented. If a letter is written for a statement via rogatory commission, we will ensure that the client adjusts his work according to the rogatory date and attends. There is no question of him fleeing, law enforcement has reached him. Our excuses are documented. Regarding the crime of robbery, the prosecutor’s office conducted an investigation and issued a decision of non-prosecution. This should also be evaluated and the request should be rejected, the court should not be occupied. This is an incident of a commercial dispute nature. Robbery means extortion of rights. We also submitted the petition stating that the audio recording belongs to the client with his knowledge and instruction.”

After the statements, the Prosecutor requested that the missing issues be resolved.

The judge, after announcing that the taking of Murat Çeçen’s voice sample was abandoned because the defendant’s lawyers accepted the audio recording and that the request for a decision of incompetence would be evaluated in the later stages, issued an arrest warrant for Murat Çeçen for the purpose of taking his defense on the grounds that “he did not attend the hearing despite proper notification.”

Çeçen’s lawyers reacted to the arrest warrant with excuses such as “no notification was received” and “the hearing date was not notified.” The judge replied, “If you know the hearing date, he knows it too.” Upon the lawyers continuing their efforts to persuade, the judge had to say, “The hearing is over. We have announced our decision.”

And the hearing was left to September.

Since there are no other ways and methods to keep Alican in prison longer, if there is no obstacle from God, we will watch this hearing together now!..

Müyesser YILDIZ

April 17, 2026