Veyis Ateş appears in court for first time and accuses Mehmet Akif Ersoy of shifting blame

Veyis Ateş appeared before an Istanbul court for the first time after spending nine months in detention in a drug investigation. The former Habertürk TV general manager and presenter attended the hearing in person before the Istanbul 6th High Criminal Court.

Ateş faces charges of supplying or trafficking drugs and facilitating drug use. He rejected the indictment in full. “I assure you, I committed no crime. I categorically reject these accusations,” he told the court.

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I assure you, I committed no crime. I categorically reject these accusations.

He also challenged the allegation that he provided a place for drug use. Ateş said the home mentioned in the case belonged to Mehmet Akif Ersoy, not to him. “I have been trying to understand this contradiction for nine months,” he said. “How could I have provided a place in a house that does not belong to me? Why would I provide something I did not use?”

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I have been trying to understand this contradiction for nine months. How could I have provided a place in a house that does not belong to me? Why would I provide something I did not use?

Ateş responded to statements from Ersoy and other witnesses and complainants named in the case. Ersoy, a former Habertürk editor-in-chief who is also detained, joined the hearing by video link as a witness. Ateş alleged that Ersoy mentioned him only after learning of his detention, claiming Ersoy had said Ateş introduced him to drugs.

Ateş further alleged that Ersoy later apologized during a lawyer meeting at Silivri Prison. According to Ateş, Ersoy said he had been forced to give that account because otherwise authorities would have included him in a case concerning Habertürk’s change of ownership. Ateş said his lawyer, Kerem Akyer, witnessed the exchange.

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I had to give my statement this way. If I had not, they would have included me in the Habertürk ownership-transfer case.