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🇹🇷 Turkey /Crime & Justice

ABK Organized Crime Trial Continues with New Panel as Kaplan Criticizes Former Judge Güven

From Cumhuriyet · () Turkish

Translated from Turkish and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

News Named sources In the courts
  • The 76-defendant Ayhan Bora Kaplan case resumed before Ankara’s 32nd High Criminal Court after an appeals court overturned the sentences and merged two case files.
  • The hearing opened with testimony from Serdar Sertçelik, a detained defendant identified as the secret witness code-named “M7,” who alleged that authorities fabricated phone evidence and reports against him.
  • Kaplan denied the organized crime allegations and accused police officials of influencing opposition media, while criticizing former court president Mehmet Güven.

The Ayhan Bora Kaplan case has resumed with a new judicial panel after an appeals court overturned the sentences and combined two files. The 76-defendant trial is being heard at Ankara’s 32nd High Criminal Court inside the Sincan closed penal institutions.

Detained defendants Ayhan Bora Kaplan and Serdar Sertçelik, known in the case as the secret witness code-named “M7,” attended the hearing. Sertçelik opened the session by alleging that officials created a fake phone file and fabricated reports in his name.

This is entirely a setup.

· Serdar SertçelikThe detained defendant alleged that authorities fabricated phone evidence and reports against him.

Sertçelik said he returned to Turkey voluntarily, but claimed a prosecutor later threatened him and offered assurances if he accepted the phone evidence. He said fingerprints from a person identified as M.Ö. appeared on the phone and that the same person was listed as its user in PDF files. “This is entirely a setup,” Sertçelik told the court.

All the opposition media were targeting us.

· Ayhan Bora KaplanKaplan accused police officials of influencing opposition media coverage during the investigation.

Kaplan then gave his defense. He accused police officers involved in the investigation of directing opposition media coverage, including reports connected to the July 15 coup attempt. He said messages showed that news stories had been arranged through opposition media and journalist Cevheri Güven.

Kaplan argued that the case began with prejudice and that prosecutors had failed to provide evidence of an organized crime group. He questioned the claim that he controlled 60 men, saying he had not communicated with them, and challenged the use of a radio as evidence because, he said, valets commonly use radios.

Why would I have formed an organization?

· Ayhan Bora KaplanKaplan challenged the prosecution’s organized crime allegations and its claimed motive.

He also criticized former court president Mehmet Güven. Kaplan alleged that Güven did not want the truth to emerge and claimed that the former judge carried out irregularities after shutting off the courtroom video-conference recording. The court’s leadership changed after judicial appointments in June and July, with Çağrı Canca appointed as the new president after Nurullah Emlik was transferred to Ankara West Judgeship.

He did not want the truth to emerge, Your Honor.

· Ayhan Bora KaplanKaplan criticized former court president Mehmet Güven during his defense.
About this summary

Originally published by Cumhuriyet in Turkish. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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