President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has been quietly acquitted in a long-running corruption case stemming from his tenure as mayor of İstanbul, despite enjoying constitutional immunity as head of state, Turkish Minute reported, citing Deutsche Welle Turkish.
Erdoğan was elected mayor of İstanbul in the March 1994 local elections and remained in office until 1998.
Interior ministry investigative reports and multiple criminal indictments later accused him and his associates of forming a criminal enterprise and engaging in offenses including embezzlement of public funds, corruption, fraud, abuse of power, forgery of official documents and perjury.
The case, known as the Akbil trial, concerned allegations of corruption involving İstanbul’s electronic public transportation payment system during Erdoğan’s term as mayor.
İstanbul prosecutors claimed that approximately 2.6 trillion Turkish lira (approximately $10 million at the time), was concealed or misused between 1997 and 1999 through the Akbil payment system used on İstanbul’s public transportation network. The investigation initially led to the detention of 65 people, while 37 defendants were later put on trial.
At the time prosecutors sought prison sentences of at least 14 years for Erdoğan and Ali Müfit Gürtuna, his successor as İstanbul mayor, on charges of embezzlement and abuse of office.
In 2003 the Üsküdar 2nd High Criminal Court acquitted 29 defendants. The cases of several others were separated due to circumstances such as being abroad or deceased.
The court separated the files of Erdoğan and several lawmakers, citing Article 83 of the constitution, which grants parliamentary immunity.
Erdoğan co-founded his ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) in 2002 with a group of politicians from his former and now-closed Virtue Party and was elected a member of the parliament in 2003.
Proceedings against Erdoğan as part of the Akbil case had been suspended for years on the grounds that he was protected by parliamentary and later presidential immunity following his election as president in 2014.
During subsequent judicial changes, the Akbil case file was transferred from the now-closed Üsküdar courthouse to the İstanbul Anadolu Courthouse.
According to DW Turkish, the portion of the case concerning Erdoğan was later transferred to the İstanbul Anadolu 6th High Criminal Court. Judicial sources said the case was reopened after Erdoğan’s lawyers petitioned the court, arguing that since all other defendants had been acquitted, the proceedings against Erdoğan should also be resolved.
Sources said the initial presiding judge objected, citing the president’s constitutional immunity. That judge was later replaced and a new panel reviewed the case and issued an acquittal. The İstanbul Anadolu Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office did not challenge the ruling, allowing it to become final.
Judicial sources told DW Turkish that the issue of trying a sitting president was addressed in the ruling, claiming that the proceedings moved forward with Erdoğan’s consent. Erdoğan’s lawyers declined to comment on the case or share the court decision, according to the report.
The acquittal was reportedly issued after Erdoğan’s re-election as president in 2023. DW Turkish also reported that former interior minister İdris Naim Şahin was tried separately after losing parliamentary immunity and was likewise acquitted.
Under Turkey’s constitution, a sitting president can only be tried before the Constitutional Court acting as the Supreme Criminal Court.
