Defendants applaud witness in Ayhan Bora Kaplan trial; Kaplan tells witness 'You're a real man'

Bora Kaplan organized crime organization trial continued today.

Before the session of the trial held at the Ankara 32nd High Criminal Court began today, the lawyers played the latest tape recording released by the fugitive secret witness Serdar Sertçelik for Bora Kaplan.

It was learned that the tape contained statements regarding the Presiding Judge made by the arrested police chief who conducted the meetings with Sertçelik. After listening to these revelations, Kaplan was heard telling his lawyers, "Let's not file a request for the recusal of the judge for now."

Meanwhile, although the Presiding Judge stated at the end of yesterday's hearing that today's session would start exactly at 09:00, it was noted that the defendants were taken back to the section under the courtroom when the panel did not take their seats by 10:00.

"I HAVE BEEN IN A CELL FOR 36-37 DAYS"

After the panel took their seats with a 1-hour delay, defendant Cemil Kumaşçıoğlu, who requested to speak, said the following:

"I am not detained for the organization, but for a MASAK file. I was brought from Bolvadin. They are torturing me in prison. I have been in a cell for 36-37 days. None of my requests are being met. When my lawyer discussed this, they said, 'If we give them what they want, they will criticize us.' Bora Kaplan has a television, I don't. Even Abdullah Öcalan was given a television; I am detained on a completely empty file, but there is none for me. They say the file is media-friendly, they wrote to the Ministry of Justice, etc. They don't even take me to the barber. My psychology has deteriorated."

"EVEN I DO NOT KNOW HIS IDENTITY"

Upon this, the Presiding Judge made the following statement:

"We were planning to hold the next hearing in July. But it will probably be left to September due to another file. Therefore, we will likely send you to Bolvadin after this hearing. Institutions have internal authority; I don't have the opportunity to say, 'Do this like this, do that like that.' If I did, I would write it."

Bora Kaplan's lawyers also requested that the statements of secret witness M7, who revealed his identity, and Ü5, who retracted his statement, be removed from the file as evidence, that the prosecutor's office floor camera records be examined to determine whether these witnesses' statements were taken by the Prosecutor, and also that Ü5 be heard in court.

Upon the questions of lawyers Umut Köroğlu and Rıdvan Şahin, "How was pressure put on secret witness Ü5, whom you heard in a special session, was a gun held to his head? Why didn't you listen and ask again?" the Presiding Judge replied, "There was a deputy judge present while the secret witness was being heard. The deputy judge is outside our panel. We have him perform the identity verification. Even I do not know his identity."

WHO IS THE EXPERT?

While Attorney Sidar Yurtçiçek requested that the arrested police officers be heard as witnesses, defendant Muhammet Kaplan said the following:

"All the police officers whose names I gave in my previous statement have been arrested. According to information I just learned, the expert who prepared the report on HTS records is also a police officer who worked under Murat Çelik. I know a lot, how they divided the money, but I don't say it so it doesn't become an agenda. I want this expert to be heard."

"THEY WANTED ME TO TESTIFY AGAINST MINISTERS AND DEPUTY MINISTERS"

Taking the floor, Bora Kaplan claimed that the KOM police officers watching the hearing were taking notes and directing the statements of secret witnesses and complainants, saying, "Why did Erkan Doğan read from a paper yesterday? The police wrote it and said, 'Go read it.' There were 20 police officers yesterday. Why did it drop to 2 now? So that Erkan Doğan doesn't squirm. You should have prevented this; but you didn't ask Erkan Doğan a single question, and you didn't allow us to resolve the contradictions."

Bora Kaplan, while requesting that the arrested police officers be heard, also explained the following:

"These are civil servants, but it is doubtful that they are civil servants. They are after their own accounts. They set a trap for me; I said they wanted me to testify against bureaucrats, ministers, and deputy ministers, you didn't believe me. They found a prosecutor according to their own wishes and made them do what they wanted. Who called T24 while they were organizing an operation against me? This is a channel opposed to the state and the government. Why don't you call the state's Anadolu Agency or İHA, what is the purpose? I'm not saying they are FETÖ members, but they are doing what FETÖ members did. Let a criminal complaint be filed against these office holders and let them be heard as witnesses. Let it emerge which one of us is lying. I had cursed them, may God show that they are being tried. May He also show that Prosecutor M.K. is being tried. My wife is under house arrest, they don't fear God. They gathered people from the street and made them complainants. 90 percent of those they made testify against me are criminals and fraudsters."

Defendant Cemil Kumaşçıoğlu said, "The magistrate judge who arrested us came out to the door and said, 'What is this? Can't I make a decision on my own?' Also, why were we sent to this magistrate judge when another one was on duty that day?" and then requested that this judge's statement be taken.

Finally, when one of Kaplan's lawyers, Umut Köroğlu, stated that he was subjected to slander that he gave 300 thousand dollars to the police for telling the legal truth, and said, "Whoever gives one lira is dishonorable, ignoble, and immoral," the Presiding Judge replied, "This is not the place to make statements."

After these requests from the defendants and lawyers, the Presiding Judge adjourned the hearing for deliberation without asking for the Prosecutor's opinion. When the hearing resumed after a half-hour break, the Presiding Judge asked the Prosecutor for his opinion and then announced the decision.

The Prosecutor requested the rejection of all requests, primarily the removal of the secret witnesses' statements from the file and the re-hearing of Ü5, who retracted his statement. The Presiding Judge also announced that all their requests were rejected.

Upon the reaction of the lawyers, the Presiding Judge was heard saying, "It is not a divine command, there is no such thing as the decisions we make now cannot be reversed."

TWO MORE COMPLAINANTS SAID "POLICE FORCED US" AND DID NOT FILE A COMPLAINT

The hearing continued with the hearing of two complainants.

Complainants Serdar Hoşyiğit and Altan Tozar both claimed that they were not complaining about the defendants and that the police forced them into the file. Serdar Hoşyiğit made the following claim:

"When I didn't give the statement they wanted, they said, 'Bora Kaplan will never get out again, don't be afraid.' When I didn't accept, they said, 'You continue like this, let's include you in the second operation, you'll see. Go, think.' Then they brought the notification regarding the court. When I didn't want to sign, they said, 'You can explain your problem in court,' so I had to sign. I am in your presence now."

Complainant Altan Tozar said, "I have neither a complaint nor am I a plaintiff. I don't want to be a party to the case, but I want to come to see my friends."

In the afternoon session of the hearing, while the additional defense of some defendants was taken, Attorney Nazım Orhon stated that the elephants were trampling each other above and people were being crushed below in this case, and said, "What these civil servants, who receive salaries from the taxes of the Turkish Nation, have done has created hatred and sadness. What is said about the prosecutor who prepared the indictment also makes us sick. We are saddened that law enforcement has taken the judiciary under its influence so much."

THE WITNESS WHO SAID "LEAVE ME OUT"

In the witness section of the hearing, M.A., one of the witnesses to the Mahfuz Tatar murder, was heard first.

M.A., who started her words by saying, "8 years have passed, I got married, I am pregnant," explained that she was a guest with Mahfuz Tatar that night, and that because Tatar was very drunk and was not allowed into the venue, he cursed a lot and a fight broke out.

Upon Bora Kaplan asking whether the police added his name, which was included in the last statement even though it was not mentioned in M.A.'s previous three statements, the following dialogues took place:

M.A.: Do not apply psychological pressure. My statement is what it is. It has been 8 years. I am married, I have nothing to do with the events. Mr. Judge, please leave us out, I don't want to come.

Kaplan: My dear sister, my name is not in the statements you gave right after the event. Which one is true?

Judge: We will evaluate it.

Kaplan: This has become like the secret witnesses.

Atty. Tarık Teoman: Isn't there a contradiction in you saying 8 years later what you didn't say 8 years ago?

M.A.: Everyone knows Bora Kaplan. Don't ask me contradictory questions. I might be pregnant, I could miscarry. Don't drag me into the events.

Defendant Muhammet Kaplan: Is your husband a police officer?

M.A.: What does it have to do with you?

M. Kaplan: They are threatening through her husband.

Judge: How do you know?

M. Kaplan: News came from outside, I prayed for guidance.

Bora Kaplan: Do you have a code, a nickname?

M.A.: I would appreciate it if you don't enter my private life. I am married now.

Judge: Code name, is she a terrorist organization member? This does not concern this file.

B. Kaplan: It concerns it, if you allow me, I will explain. Why did you change your name?

M.A.: I felt like it.

B. Kaplan: What time did you come to the bar?

M.A.: 8 years have passed. Do you remember yesterday?

B. Kaplan: I kiss your hands and feet, can it be like this?

M.A.: Don't laugh, this is a serious place. Why am I here, Mr. Judge? Am I not a witness? Why am I being accused?

B. Kaplan: Your nickname was İdil, you had a code name. Have you ever met me? Did they show my picture before you testified?

Judge: You are trying to create a contradiction between the statements.

B. Kaplan: There is only one statement. Wouldn't the real contradiction be giving different statements?

After M.A. said, "I don't want to answer any more questions," and left the courtroom, the second witness G.Ö. was heard.

G.Ö., the janitor of the apartment building where Semih Arslan was said to have been killed or committed suicide, claimed that the police wrote his statement against some defendants and that he was subjected to ill-treatment.

THE ORGANIZATION'S SOURCE OF MONEY IS GROWING IN DUBAI

Witness C.K., who connected via SEGBİS from Silivri Prison where he is convicted of smuggling, said that the lifeblood of the organization is money, and the source of the money is Erkan Yıldırım, and that Yıldırım is now growing day by day in Dubai. C.K. also made these remarkable statements:

"Witnesses are retracting their statements. How can the victims come and tell what they experienced?"

Reminding that all the KOM police officers who took his statement were dismissed upon the Presiding Judge's questions, C.K. stated that he did not accept those statements and said, "My previous statement is not true. Let me put it that way. Even if I said it then, I don't accept it."

C.K. spoke as follows about defendant Barış Kurt:

"I saw him in front of the bar. He was a charismatic man in a suit. He looks like our Minister Süleyman Soylu. In terms of haircut, baldness. Either the late Semih Arslan or Muhammet Kaplan said, 'He is a deep brother in the state'."

After the Judge and the lawyers, Bora Kaplan asked C.K. whether the police directed his statement. C.K. explained the following:

"Commissioner Gökhan said that Murat Çelik sent his greetings. Yes, there were points they directed. They wanted me to complain about Erkan Yıldırım. I said, 'What will be my gain?' He had taken my car, my money, everything. They said, 'A trustee has been appointed, you will get all your money back.' So I told them. Then they said, 'Do you have anything to add? You are very close with Bora, Muhammet.' They reminded me of the issues written in my statement."

While the defendants applauded these words of C.K., Bora Kaplan said, "You're a real man... thank you." In the continuation, the following dialogues took place:

Judge: Did they say, "Muhammet said this and that"?

C.K.: Yes.

Muhammet Kaplan: My brother. They made me tell about Erkan and then stuck Muhammet in there.

Bora Kaplan: What more can he say, he says they stuck him in. You're a real man, C....

C.K.: The police who came to the prison to take my statement, as they say, the wolf's tooth has tasted blood, they were like that.

After C.K.'s statement, the hearing was adjourned to continue tomorrow. Meanwhile, it was heard that some defendants shouted to their relatives as they were leaving the courtroom, "Send a lawyer to Murat Çelik."

Müyesser YILDIZ

May 21, 2024

News Source: 12punto