A decision was made to arrest 39 of the individuals referred to the courthouse as part of the investigation into Bakırköy Municipality. Among those arrested was Bakırköy Deputy Mayor Abdülhamit Pehlivan, the brother of Mehmet Pehlivan, the imprisoned lawyer of IMM Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu.
Another individual arrested as part of the investigation was Deputy Mayor Ali Rıza Akyüz, who had been released during the IMM case hearing on September 4. The processing of the suspects, who were taken to the courthouse yesterday morning, continued until this morning.
STATEMENT FROM PEHLİVAN FROM PRISON
Lawyer Mehmet Pehlivan, who is currently imprisoned at Marmara Prison in Silivri, reacted to his brother's arrest through a statement shared on his social media account. Pehlivan stated that throughout his own 17-month detention, he had warned his brother about "this judicial climate."
In his statement, Pehlivan expressed that his brother had spent a significant part of his life as a civil servant and had upheld a "public-service-oriented approach." Arguing that the questions directed at his brother were answered with laws and regulations, Pehlivan said, "The issue was never the questions or the answers anyway. They just arrested him."
At the end of his statement, Pehlivan also included lines from Ahmed Arif: "This is honor / Engraved on our identity tags, / And this is patience, / Filtered from poisons."
News Source: 12punto
