A Turkish court on Tuesday ordered main opposition leader Özgür Özel to pay Justice Minister Akın Gürlek 750,000 lira ($15,000) in damages over allegations that the minister had bought real estate he could not have afforded on his government salary, the ANKA news agency reported.
The court in İstanbul awarded Gürlek part of the compensation he sought for damage to his reputation and dismissed a lawsuit Özel had filed over the minister’s comments about him.
Özel’s lawyer, Sedat Aslantaş, pledged to appeal, arguing that the court had not obtained the evidence needed to examine the allegations.
The court rejected a request to obtain official records that would show whether Gürlek owned or had owned the properties Özel identified, according to Deutsche Welle’s Turkish service.
Özel also challenged the decision after his party’s parliamentary meeting, accusing Gürlek’s lawyers of opposing requests for the records.
“Someone will eventually ask for those title deeds,” he said.
The dispute began at a March 17 news conference, when Özel, then leader of the Republican People’s Party (CHP), displayed documents he described as property ownership records and alleged that Gürlek owned 12 properties and had sold four others.
He put their combined value at 452 million lira, about $10.2 million at the time, and questioned how Gürlek could have paid for them with his earnings as a judge and prosecutor.
Gürlek denied the allegations, saying four properties were registered in his name and that the documents Özel presented did not match official records and maintained that he had disclosed his assets as required by law.
The CHP asked prosecutors to investigate Gürlek, while the minister filed a criminal complaint accusing Özel of using forged documents to make false accusations against him.
Three land registry employees were jailed pending trial in March in a separate investigation into allegations that they accessed Gürlek’s property records without authorization.
Gürlek was appointed justice minister in February by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
As İstanbul’s chief public prosecutor, he had overseen investigations targeting CHP-led city governments and the corruption case against İstanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, Erdoğan’s main political rival.
İmamoğlu has been jailed since March 2025 on corruption charges he denies and contends that the prosecution aims to prevent him from challenging Erdoğan for the presidency.
Özel now leads the New Party, which he and 90 other lawmakers formed after leaving the CHP in July.
Their departure followed a court ruling that removed Özel as CHP leader and reinstated Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, whom he had defeated in the party’s 2023 leadership election.
This article is republished from Turkish Minute.
