Seventeen people were taken into custody this morning as part of an operation conducted at the Esenyurt Municipality, which is under the administration of a government-appointed trustee. The Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor's Office announced that an investigation is being conducted into allegations of bid-rigging in certain municipal tenders and the receipt of bribes from contractors in this context.
According to the statement from the Chief Public Prosecutor's Office, detention warrants were issued for 19 suspects on October 7, 2026, as part of the investigation. In the operations carried out by teams from the Istanbul Financial Crimes Investigation Branch, 17 suspects were apprehended and taken into custody.
It was stated that Esenyurt Deputy Mayor Yusuf Ulutaş is among those detained. It was reported that efforts to apprehend Namık Çebi, the owner of Çebi İnşaat, and Fikret Güneş, who are said to be abroad, are ongoing.
Istanbul Deputy Governor Can Aksoy was appointed as a trustee to the Esenyurt Municipality on October 30, 2024, following the "City Consensus" (Kent Uzlaşısı) operation targeting Mayor Ahmet Özer.
The Chief Public Prosecutor's Office's statement regarding the operation is as follows:
"Within the scope of the investigations conducted by our Chief Public Prosecutor's Office regarding allegations that bid-rigging occurred in certain tenders at the Esenyurt Municipality and that bribes were received from contractors in this context, detention warrants were issued on 07.10.2026 for 19 suspects identified as having participated in the aforementioned acts. 17 suspects have been apprehended and taken into custody by officers of the Istanbul Financial Crimes Investigation Branch, and efforts to apprehend the 2 remaining suspects are continuing. The investigations are being carried out meticulously and are respectfully presented for public information."
News Source: 12punto
