Breaking News: Ekrem İmamoğlu reveals the name of the 'radish in the bag'! 'Keep this name in mind...'

Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality (IMM) and Union of Municipalities of Türkiye (TBB) Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu spoke at a press conference held at the Foyer Hall of the IMM Saraçhane Presidential Building.

İmamoğlu exposed the track record of the expert witness involved in the investigations conducted against him and CHP-run municipalities.

Stating that "the name of the radish in the bag has been revealed," İmamoğlu said, "Keep this name in mind. Although, it is already quite memorable..."

İmamoğlu announced that S.B. was appointed as an expert witness in the Beylikdüzü Municipality case, where he is being tried as a defendant, as well as in investigations involving IMM subsidiaries IETT and ISFALT, and the Esenyurt and Beşiktaş Municipalities.

İmamoğlu also noted that the name S.B. appeared behind the operations targeting the Esenyurt and Beşiktaş Municipalities.

(Editor's note: Due to the increasing pressure on the media through the judiciary in recent times, the name of the expert witness pointed out by IMM Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu at the public press conference has been changed to S.B.)

We are in Saraçhane. I am making statements regarding the agenda. https://t.co/AoXtEzdJCi

— Ekrem İmamoğlu (@ekrem_imamoglu) January 27, 2025

Highlights from İmamoğlu's speech:

The government disappears when it comes to taking responsibility. Türkiye is accustomed to the arrest of political party leaders.

I condemn in the strongest terms those who insult and declare our Bolu Mayor Tanju Özcan guilty through the media, as well as the attempts to evade responsibility through familiar games.

The government, which has seized the broadest powers, disappears when it comes time to take responsibility.

On the same days we are holding this press conference, we have all witnessed the effort to shape Turkish politics during these troubled times, where we are experiencing the pain of a fire tragedy on one hand, and our days are filled with trauma due to a politicized judiciary on the other.

Unfortunately, Zafer Party Chairman Ümit Özdağ was detained upon the instruction of the Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor's Office. He was arrested on charges other than the reason for his detention.

Türkiye is a country accustomed to the arrest of political party leaders. But when? During coup periods... We experienced these during the 1980 coup. Since the coup, for the first time in Türkiye, two party leaders have been put in prison.

Mr. Selahattin Demirtaş has been held in prison for over 7 years. Now, Ümit Özdağ has been arrested.

These were events that only occurred during military coup periods, and none of us want to remember those days.

In 2025, that is, 45 years after the coup, we can never accept the re-imprisonment of party leaders by the judiciary.

I send my love and respects to both Mr. Ümit Özdağ and Mr. Demirtaş from here.

***

"THE NAME OF OUR PRESS CONFERENCE IS THE BIG RADISH"

Except for a handful of people, including our AK Party citizens, no one in our country is smiling.

Tragedies and disasters follow one another. Our youth are being eliminated in interviews. Gangs are taking the lives of our newborn babies. Our women walk the streets in fear. Gangs are running wild. But if you ask about all of this, the government has no fault. There is no example of this in the world. You cannot find the person responsible. They disappear. Those who do not see any responsibility in themselves have constructed a strategy to eliminate their political rivals through underhanded tactics.

Today, politics is interfering with the judiciary to its core.

The name of our press conference is the big radish...

I will be following what the Minister of Justice, who tweets that the President and the judiciary are independent, will say regarding the radish we are about to pull out.

As you know, a lawsuit was filed against me due to a tender held in 2015 during my tenure as Mayor of Beylikdüzü. This case is still ongoing. I am being tried with a 7-year prison sentence and a political ban. The target completion time set by the court when the hearing began was 409 days; we will see together whether the hearing, which was postponed to April 11, will be concluded on its 826th day.

In fact, the Council of State made a decision in 2020 regarding the tender file for which I am being tried. It ruled that criminal liability could not be imposed on the mayor, that is, me. There are the signatures of 5 high-ranking judges under this decision of the Council of State. Despite this, a lawsuit was filed against me. The court, not finding the opinion of the 5 high-ranking judges of the Council of State regarding me sufficient, entrusted the matter to 1 expert witness.

On July 3, 2022, this expert witness submitted their report. This extraordinary expert did not find the decision of the 5 high-ranking judges of the Council of State correct. In the new report they wrote, they claimed that I had responsibility in this tender.

These statements also entered the indictment.

According to the prosecutor, the internal auditor of Beylikdüzü Municipality had identified problems regarding this tender, prepared a report, and presented it to me, but I did not take the necessary action.

However, there is a very serious problem. There is no such report! Since a non-existent report could not have been presented to me, there is no question of me committing a dereliction of duty.

So, how does a non-existent report enter the prosecutor's indictment? Believe it or not, a civil inspector wrote it first. Since we are focusing on a single name today, there is no need to give other names.

The expert witness of this case, just like the civil inspector, stated that there was an internal auditor's report. Our lawyers proved in court that there was no such report.

Despite a non-existent report, the court accepted the indictment.

As you can see, this expert is a professional comfortable enough to write about and cite things that do not exist.

They are sure that nothing will happen to them. Clearly, they have people behind them whom they trust very much.

Now I present this person to you. The name of this extraordinary person is S.B.

The name of the radish in the bag has been revealed. Keep this name in mind. S.B... Although, it is already quite memorable...

What a coincidence that our investigations always fall to S.B.

They have people behind them whom they trust very much. A new expert report has arrived. They are bold enough to mention a non-existent report. New responsibilities have been given to S.B. And what a coincidence that the tasks given are always related to us. S.B. was also appointed to the ISFALT file. Our defense lawyers submitted a petition stating that the expert was not qualified. However, it was not accepted. S.B. prepared an expert report in a short time.

"MR. S.B. IS VERY PRACTICAL, PREPARES REPORTS IN A SHORT TIME..."

Do not forget this name. In the report where the signatures of the five members of the Council of State are present, they say, 'Not only does Ekrem İmamoğlu have no responsibility, but he has also made the institution profitable.' All the tasks given to this S.B. are always related to us. This gentleman was also made an expert witness in the investigation regarding IETT. There was no response from the prosecutor for a long time, and there was insistence on this gentleman. S.B. prepared a report full of baseless information against IETT. S.B. is very practical, they prepare reports in a short time. The Council of State auditors also sent a letter stating that this gentleman's findings were incorrect.

Those in power have truly lost their decency and sense of shame. In our affairs, the expert is always S.B. There are 8,806 expert witnesses in Istanbul, but by our luck, it is always S.B. What a coincidence... After I took office in the autumn of 2019, I gave authority to our inspection board. These were about irregularities, but for some reason, they always returned from the judiciary. In an irregularity regarding a tender, the court again, what a coincidence, chose S.B. as the expert witness. While S.B. was an extremely well-behaved person until 2019, for some reason they became a warrior after we arrived.

WHO IS S.B.?

Let us explain who S.B. is...

They are a retired citizen. From the Ministry of Public Works and Settlement. Their duty at the ministry was an accounting officer.

Then they started working as an expert witness. They look at cooperative cases. Then they work as an expert witness in Çorlu, Tekirdağ, and Çerkezköy cases.

The name Çerkezköy has caught the attention of some friends. Let's not give their name, because when we do, an investigation immediately starts against me...

Between 2014-2016, a now very famous member of our judiciary was also a judge in Çerkezköy. One cannot help but wonder if they ever met, if they knew each other, or if it was just a coincidence.

Let me ask one more question. Has there been a case where this very famous expert witness of Istanbul, Mr. S.B., was tried in the Çorlu Heavy Penal Court on allegations of writing a fake expert report? Prosecutors who are fond of S.B. probably know the answer to this question.

S.B. IS ALSO IN THE ESENYURT AND BEŞİKTAŞ OPERATIONS

S.B. finally appeared before us in the Beşiktaş and Esenyurt operations. 'Hello S.B.' immediately comes to the rescue. They say 'Snap', and 'Pop', the report comes out. If a case touches İmamoğlu, S.B. immediately appears before us. The connection of the IMM subsidiary with the Beşiktaş and Esenyurt operations is as follows; there is a secret file. But this file also covers IETT and IGDAŞ. This person establishes links between files.

Mr. S.B. is not alone here; there are two other expert witnesses. Look at a document dated January 3, 2025. There is a section regarding Ahmet Özer. 'Evaluated within the scope of the provision that Özer neglected, violated, and abused his duty to manage and direct the municipality...' So this is a report with 3 expert witnesses. Mr. Minister, listen well. The rule says; 'Expert witnesses must come together to hold a meeting and prepare the expert report together. After these discussions held as a board, an expert witness who expresses a dissenting opinion can prepare a separate report.' The real scandal is this: the other two expert witnesses do not have signatures on this report. Only S.B.'s signature is present. In other words, the prosecutor's office accepts this report, which has no validity. And in the separately prepared expert report that was not accepted, Ahmet Özer's name is not there.

"MR. MINISTER OF JUSTICE, HEAR THESE..."

With an expert report that we can call fake, they declared a 65-year-old professor a terrorist overnight and threw him in jail. Because they have nothing in their hands, they haven't been able to write an indictment for 100 days. How can you keep our mayor in jail despite having nothing against him? Mr. Minister of Justice, hear these. I want you to hear these, examine them, and act accordingly.

You must immediately take action on this matter at the HSK (Council of Judges and Prosecutors). It is the duty of the HSK, of which you are the minister, to follow and investigate the work and actions of members of the judiciary. Do not tweet at me saying independent judiciary. Take action. But I think you won't be able to do it, you don't have the power. I claim from here, go ahead, prove me wrong. You cannot do it, your word does not carry weight in Istanbul.

Only one thing is being talked about in the courthouse, a sound echoing in the courthouse rings in our ears; 'The Minister cannot interfere with us.' But in this situation, you have only tweeted so far. We need a heart as brave as a lion that is just. We need to take the rule of law as a matter of honor on behalf of this nation. The religion of the state is justice, isn't it? Look at the beauty of the saying. I wish you would take action and I would apologize to you. But you cannot.

Mr. President, as long as you have such skillful expert witnesses like Mr. S.B., and as long as there are members of the judiciary who find the pinpoint expert S.B. among thousands of experts, you may think that you are carrying big radishes in your bag before a case or before an ongoing process. However, what you think are radishes will not have the slightest place in the hearts of this nation!

The big radish came out of your bag. Actually, your job is very easy. You don't need to carry so many bags on your back. You will be relieved the moment you entrust yourself only to the conscience of the nation at the ballot box.

RESPONSE TO THE QUESTION "DO YOU HAVE ANY CONCERNS?"

*The question of whether you have any concerns is frequently asked. When I was a business person, I set out to take on responsibility. I am a determined person on this sacred journey. As of the 2019 journey, this journey reached another phase. I came to the mayor's seat on a political journey that I started specifically for the reason of fighting against the lawlessness of a public administrator. For those who cross the Rubicon, there is no anxiety or fear.

RESPONSE TO THE QUESTION OF "PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDACY"

Ekrem İmamoğlu responded to the question about whether the CHP should announce its presidential candidate early.

İmamoğlu said, "There is a very important judicial issue in the country right now. I find it correct to focus on this, and I do not find it correct to talk about other issues for now."

"MR. PRESIDENT IS THE PERSON WHO SAYS 'I DO NOT RECOGNIZE THE CONSTITUTIONAL COURT DECISION'"

İmamoğlu continued his words as follows:

"There is an investigation against me. We are expecting a call this week. Or we think there will be an environment accordingly. We will establish the independent judicial order that those who do injustice and lawlessness to us today need. We will do this for your children. We will make the judiciary independent and establish an environment where the members of the judiciary of this country will practice a profession they deserve.

Mr. President is the person who says 'I do not recognize the Constitutional Court decision.' If there is a warning regarding the judiciary, President Erdoğan may have warned AK Party Chairman Erdoğan. I did not take it personally."

News Source: 12punto