The İzmir Chief Public Prosecutor's Office has prepared an indictment against 17 suspects as part of the investigation into the “Gaziemir Construction Cooperative,” which was conducted through the İzmir Metropolitan Municipality subsidiary İZBETON AŞ.
In the 1,008-page indictment, various charges were brought against 17 suspects, 15 of whom are currently in custody, including former İzmir Metropolitan Mayor Tunç Soyer, former CHP İzmir Provincial Chair Şenol Aslanoğlu, former CHP Ankara Provincial Chair Ümit Erkol, and former İZBETON AŞ General Manager Heval Savaş Kaya.
Prison sentences ranging from 4.5 to 20 years were requested for the suspects on charges of “embezzlement,” “forgery of official documents,” “qualified fraud,” “neglect of supervisory duty,” and “aiding and abetting embezzlement.” The indictment has been submitted to the High Criminal Court.
The indictment states that while construction work in urban transformation areas was assigned to İZBETON AŞ by a municipal council decision, a protocol was nonetheless signed between İZBETON and the S.S. Business People Gaziemir Housing Construction Cooperative in 2022. It is alleged that the protocol in question was executed with the general manager's signature without a board of directors decision and by exceeding the scope of representation authority.
The prosecution alleged that when comparing the current level of construction with the payments made by the cooperative, there was an overpayment in the range of 30 to 33 million liras. The indictment includes information that a contract worth 51 million liras with a duration of 1,080 calendar days was signed between the İzmir Metropolitan Municipality and İZBETON, with site delivery taking place in 2021; meanwhile, a contract worth 151 million liras with a duration of 820 calendar days was signed between İZBETON and the cooperative in 2022.
The indictment, which alleges that villas were later included in the project and that some individuals made payments in this context, emphasizes that Tunç Soyer was also the chairman of the board of directors of İZBETON AŞ during his tenure as mayor. It was also noted in the indictment that Soyer had made public statements claiming that the construction operations carried out through the cooperatives were under the guarantee of the İzmir Metropolitan Municipality.
The prosecution argued that Soyer, in his capacity as chairman of the İZBETON board, was responsible for the unlawful transactions and the alleged resulting damages. A prison sentence of 4.5 to 14 years was requested for Soyer on charges of “aiding and abetting embezzlement” and “forgery of official documents.”
In his statement included in the indictment, Tunç Soyer did not accept the accusations. Arguing that no money entered the İzmir Metropolitan Municipality or İZBETON regarding the Gaziemir Cooperative, Soyer said, “Neither the municipality nor İZBETON is responsible for the internal operations of the cooperative.”
Stating that the urban transformation efforts began before his term, Soyer said, “I have no connection or link to any cooperative or its managers. I did not establish these cooperatives. These cooperatives are not the municipality's cooperatives. If there is any loss to the cooperative, this loss is not a public loss.”
In the indictment, prison sentences of 8 to 20 years were requested for Ümit Erkol, Şenol Aslanoğlu, and 10 other suspects on charges of “embezzlement” and “forgery of official documents.” For the other 4 suspects, prison sentences of 6 to 16 years were requested on charges of “qualified fraud,” “aiding and abetting embezzlement,” and “neglect of supervisory duty.”
As part of the investigation, actions were previously taken in line with complaints from the cooperative's new board of directors, victim statements, and expert reports; some suspects were detained in an operation conducted on April 9. With the expansion of the investigation, the number of suspects rose to 17, and 15 people were arrested.
News Source: 12punto
