Seçil Erzan appears in court again: Decision made to continue detention

Seçil Erzan, whose 102-year and 4-month prison sentence in the case publicly known as the "high-yield secret fund" trial was overturned by the appellate court, has appeared before a judge again. The court panel decided that the detained defendant Erzan should remain in custody.

Erzan was brought to the hearing held at the Istanbul 29th High Criminal Court from the prison where she is being held. At the end of the hearing, the next session of the case was adjourned to October 9.

The 22nd Criminal Chamber of the Istanbul Regional Court of Justice had completed its appellate review regarding the 102-year and 4-month prison sentence handed down by the Istanbul 41st High Criminal Court against Erzan for the crimes of "qualified fraud" and "forgery of private documents."

The chamber found the appeals well-founded, stating that the court of first instance did not include information regarding the merged files when issuing its verdict, which made judicial review difficult. The decision also pointed out that certain procedural provisions were not applied during the trial process and ordered the file to be sent back to the local court for a retrial.

ERZAN: I DID NOT ESTABLISH A SYSTEM

Making her defense at the hearing, Seçil Erzan claimed that her statements were not sufficiently taken into account during the previous trial process. Erzan said, "Nothing I said for 3 years was given credit; decisions were always made against me. I did not receive sufficient legal support, and I gave statements under direction."

Arguing that she was under fear and pressure at that time, Erzan said that people who wanted to take money from her showed up at her door, that she was beaten in front of her mother's eyes, and that she gave out promissory notes. Erzan stated, "That day, under fear and pressure, I told everyone there was a fund. I did not establish a system. I have no behavior that could be concretized as a promise of high interest."

Speaking about Arda Turan in her defense, Erzan said, "If Arda Turan has a single penny of receivables from me, then punish me. He took back the money he gave me within 15 days." Erzan claimed that she had no intention of corrupting anyone's will, that she could not make repayments to her friends, and that she had sold her family's assets.

Following the defenses, the court panel decided to continue the detention and ruled that the next hearing of the retrial would be held on October 9.

News Source: 12punto