Ekrem İmamoğlu, who was elected Istanbul Metropolitan Mayor on 31 March and was stripped of his certificate of election under a Supreme Election Council ruling, is being investigated down to the last detail prior to 23 June. It has been learnt that most recently İmamoğlu’s time as mayor in Beylikdüzü is undergoing examination by the Interior Ministry.
According to an article by Sözcü newspaper columnist Saygı Öztürk, the task of investigating İmamoğlu's time as mayor is being undertaken by a fifteen-person team. Öztürk stated the following in his column today, “Istanbul Metropolitan Mayor candidate Ekrem İmamoğlu is being investigated down to the last detail. And this is not just some kind of slapdash investigation. The files of inspections and investigations conducted by Interior Ministry Civil Inspectors during his time as Beylikdüzü mayor that ended in İmamoğlu's favour have been brought out of the archives and are this time being examined by different inspectors.”
“HIS OUSTING AS MAYOR WILL BE MOOTED”
Noting that the search in the existing files for transgressions by İmamoğlu in his time as mayor has proved elusive, Öztürk indicated, “But an intense effort is being made to dig something up while he is a candidate and hit him with it before the election. And, if nothing can be found during the election period, if he is elected mayor, his ousting as mayor will then be mooted.”
Öztürk commented as follows in his article:
“A civil inspector who started working at Beylikdüzü Municipality before Eid is conducting special work with a fifteen-person technical team and is investigating everything in Ekrem İmamoğlu's last five-year term as mayor. Beylikdüzü's new CHP mayor, Mehmet Murat Çalık, was deputy mayor while İmamoğlu was in office. Responding to a question by Sözcü, Çalık described the situation at the municipality as follows:
‘More or less eighty per cent of the business performed by our municipality is undergoing investigation. Among this, internal correspondence, planning implementations and human resources business and procedures, in short all business conducted during Ekrem İmamoğlu's term as mayor, are being looked into. Files into matters that were brought before the judiciary and adjudicated in our municipality’s favour are also being gone through with a fine toothcomb. The job doesn’t look set to finish yet.’”
(Translated by Tim Drayton)
Hediye Levent
Yusuf Karadaş
Yücel Özdemir