The 49th hearing of the case regarding the Aziz İhsan Aktaş criminal organization, in which a total of 200 defendants, including 7 mayors, 6 of whom were suspended from their duties, and 7 of whom were detained, has ended.
At the hearing held by the Istanbul 1st High Criminal Court in the hall opposite the Marmara Closed Penal Institution, some of the defendants' lawyers made statements against the opinion on the merits.
Some of the defendants' lawyers who took the floor claimed that there were no allegations showing the existence of a criminal organization and stated that elements of other crimes related to the organization could not occur.
Lawyers claimed that the alleged organization fiction collapsed in the trial and that the prosecution had no legal basis to rely on it.
Claiming that the statements of the defendant and witnesses revealed that the organization did not exist, the lawyers argued that the crimes stated in the opinion were not committed.
Lawyers argued that the crime of "extortion" did not occur, and that progress payments occurring in the ordinary course of commercial life cannot be an organizational action, and claimed that it was revealed that the tenders in the opinion were specially designed, their prices were unfairly increased, and that this did not occur in the tenders made regarding the allegations of public damage.
The court postponed the hearing to Thursday, July 16.