Turkey’s main opposition leader Özgür Özel has accused a former senior figure in the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) of attempting to coerce a jailed businessman into giving false testimony and paying $2 million in exchange for his release, Turkish Minute reported.
Republican People’s Party (CHP) Chair Özel told reporters at a news conference on Thursday that Mücahit Birinci, a lawyer and former member of the AKP’s Central Decision and Executive Board, visited Murat Kapki, a businessman jailed in connection with a corruption and terrorism investigation targeting the İstanbul Municipality, and tried to pressure him into signing a fabricated statement.
According to Özel, Birinci presented Kapki with a one-and-a-half-page statement and told him, “You sign this and also pay $2 million, and you’ll get out of here.” Özel claimed Birinci asked Kapki to falsely assert that certain meetings had taken place, name various people and link them to alleged criminal events.
Kapki, who owns an advertising company, is among the dozens of people arrested as part of an investigation targeting the CHP-run İstanbul Municipality that also led to the arrest of the city’s prominent mayor, Ekrem İmamoğlu, in March. The jailing of İmamoğlu, seen as the most powerful political rival of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, led to mass protests unseen in Turkey since 2013 and drew international condemnation.
Birinci responded to the allegations on social media, addressing Özel: “Once this nonsense is over, I will respond to you when I choose to. It won’t take long. Nothing will be the same again.”
Özel called on Justice Minister Yılmaz Tunç to convene the Council of Judges and Prosecutors for an extraordinary meeting and to launch a transparent investigation.
The İstanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office announced following Özel’s statement that it had opened an investigation into Birinci over the allegations. In a statement the prosecutor’s office said it was acting on reports in the media and on social media about the alleged meeting between Birinci and Kapki in prison.
In another statement last week Özel also accused a group of prosecutors and lawyers of operating an extortion scheme targeting municipal employees in İstanbul, claiming they used corruption allegations as leverage to extract money in exchange for favorable legal treatment.
The investigations into the CHP municipalities began in October 2024 with the arrest of Esenyurt Mayor Ahmet Özer and have since expanded to include several districts across İstanbul and most recently, Adana and Adıyaman.
The pressure intensified after the CHP’s sweeping victory in the March 2024 local elections in which the AKP suffered its worst electoral defeat in two decades, losing control of key cities to the opposition.
