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The Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office has requested tender files from Kütahya and Isparta municipalities as part of an ongoing investigation into the organized crime group led by Aziz Ihsan Aktaş.
In a written statement, the prosecutor’s office said official instructions were sent to the relevant public prosecutors’ offices to obtain the tender documents awarded to companies linked to the organization.
The investigation, launched to uncover the financial network and activities of the group, is being expanded, officials said, noting that the probe continues in coordination with multiple jurisdictions.
In related news, prosecutors in Istanbul summoned more than 200 people for questioning in an investigation into alleged corruption at Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality (IBB).
Most recently, as a part of the ongoing corruption investigation, 22 employees of the IBB arrived at the Istanbul Police Department to give statements on Wednesday. Those 22 individuals who appeared early in the morning were questioned at the Financial Crimes Division under the police supervision.
Those suspects also include the current mayor of Hopa, Utku Cihan, in the northern province of Artvin, Türkiye, who will testify to local authorities in Hopa. Cihan previously served as the head of the Transportation Department at the IBB where he was first appointed director of transportation planning and was promoted to head of transportation in 2020. He was elected Hopa mayor later in March 31, 2024 local elections.
Prosecutors are seeking a sentence of 187 to 450 years for Aziz Ihsan Aktaş on nine separate charges, while former Beşiktaş Mayor Rıza Akpolat faces 133 to 337 years. He is charged with “membership in a criminal organization, rigging public tenders, forgery of official documents, forgery of private document, fraud against public institutions, receiving bribes and illicit enrichment.”
On the other hand, former Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoğlu was arrested in March on charges of ”corruption, running a criminal organization, membership of a criminal organization, bribery, fraud, illegally obtaining personal data and corruption in a public tender.” Aktaş is accused of seeking to push forward his “tender system” by paying cash and giving out vehicles to mayors as bribes.
Prosecutors say Imamoğlu’s win in the 2024 election, where he secured a second term as Istanbul mayor, helped Aktaş’s criminal network to enter “into a golden age” of their corruption web. They say the network secured public tenders from the IBB and district municipalities of Türkiye’s most populated city since 2020, including Beşiktaş, Avcılar and Esenyurt municipalities. Mayors of those three municipalities were already arrested on charges of corruption and aiding a terrorist group. Among municipal subsidiaries, the network won tenders for an asphalt production company of the IBB and the city’s main transport authority.
