Prosecutor in case justifying Hakkari trustee listed as 'FETÖ' fugitive

The prosecutor who wrote the indictment in the case against the elected co-mayor of Hakkari, which has been ongoing for 10 years and was used as a justification for appointing a trustee to the municipality, was listed as a fugitive from the “FETÖ” organization in the “terrorists wanted” list. The secret witness in the file against co-mayor Sıddık Akış reportedly has been making allegations against people he has not known for four years.

Wednesday June 05 2024 11:30 am

Hakkari co-mayor Akkış recives his official authoritization after the local elections.

Duvar English

The Turkish prosecutor who prepared the indictment in the 2014 case which was used as a justification for detaining Hakkari Mayor Mehmet Sıddık Akış and appointing a trustee in his place, has been on the state's "Fettulahhist Terrorist Organization (FETÖ) wanted list."

Pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Equality and Democracy (DEM) Party's Akış was elected co-mayor with 48.92 percent of the votes in the 2024 local elections with co-mayor Viyan Tekçe, but he was detained due to the case he has been on trial for 10 years and the government appointed the province’s governor as a trustee to the municipality administration.

The 61st hearing of the case filed against Akış in 2014 held on June 5 at Hakkari Heavy Penal Court.

However, the first prosecutor in this case has been on the “wanted for terrorism” list of the Interior Ministry since 2023 on charges of “membership of a terrorist organization.”

The prosecutor have been on trial in a case against many judges and prosecutors for their roles in cases such as illegal wiretaps, unlawful evacuations, and the military espionage case following the 2016 coup attempt.

The Interior Ministry in 2023 announced that 30 former judges and prosecutors, who were once involved in critical cases, investigations, search and seizure decisions in Turkey, were included in the “wanted for terrorism” list.

The lawyers stated that the newly opened investigation against Akkış, which was followed by a confidentiality order, stemmed from a speech he made at an event organized during the Hakkari leg of the Freedom March that started from Van in 2014.

Secret witness in case: ‘I gave false testimony under police coercion’

Bitlis Journalists Association chair Sinan Aygül on June 5 also made statements about the person who gave secret witness testimony in the lawsuit filed against the elected co-mayor of Hakkari.

Making a statement on his social media account, Aygül announced that in September 2012, while he was in prison, he conducted an interview with the secret witness of the case against Akkış via letter.

Hakkari'de DEM Parti Belediye Eşbaşkanı Mehmet Sıddık Akış'ın gözaltına alınması ve yerine kayyım atanmasına sebep olan dosyaya bir de şu açıdan bakalım.

2012 yılı Eylül ayında, cezaevindeyken, cezaevindeki biriyle, mektup yoluyla bir röportaj yaptım.
— Sinan Aygül (@sinanaygul) June 4, 2024

In his interview, the secret witness nicknamed “Game Breaker" explained in detail how they became a witness, how they were forced to testify, and how the prosecutor and the court put pressure on them.

Aygül said, “After the news was published, the secret witness was removed from all the files in which they were a witness. The prosecutor who is now on the wanted list and other judges who were in office at the time and did not even request a retraction. The secret witness was silently removed.”

Aygül stated that the secret witness stated that they had signed allegations prepared by the police for four years about people he did not know and that after they gave up secret witness testimony, pressure was exerted on their family and they and three members of his family were arrested.

The secret witness also noted that the statements they gave were also lies and that they were forced to give their testimony by the police.