Businesswoman Sibel Çarmıklı and her son Murat Çarmıklı were detained yesterday as part of the investigation into the gang in which a military prosecutor had also been arrested. The two were referred to a court yesterday after testifying to the police. Air Forces Judicial Undersecretary Col. Ahmet Zeki Üçok, who was conducting an ongoing military investigation into alleged secret meetings of military academy students planning a coup d'état, was arrested last week on charges of membership in the same crime gang. Investigators claim that businesswoman Çarmıklı agreed to pay TL 2.5 million to the gang in return for Üçok's arranging to lift a no-sale decision on a piece of land along the proposed route of a third bridge to be built in İstanbul connecting the European and Asian sides of the city. The police have camera footage proving the two met at a restaurant along with two others. The footage was obtained during the investigation by two undercover police officers in the restaurant who were seated right next to the table where Üçok and Çarmıklı sat. Police used wiretaps to record the conversation as well as capture video.
Meanwhile, a person identified only as H.Ç. and known as an administrator in the AK Party Beşiktaş branch was also mentioned in the negotiations, the police said. Çarmıklı, a long-time politician from the Motherland Party (ANAVATAN, previously ANAP), was the AK Party's Beşiktaş mayoral candidate in the March local elections. Her son and a third individual whose identity was withheld were also detained in Sunday's operation.
Another allegation that has come up during the investigation holds that the gang had taken millions of lira from Fenerbahçe chairman Aziz Yıldırım to remove his name from an indictment. Other public figures and celebrities, such as television series actors Sinan Çalışkanoğlu and Alp Korkmaz, scriptwriter Ozan Emre Yurdakul and Murat Aksoylu, the son of the former owner of a television channel, as well as several influential families, were also in close contact with the gang, particularly for its services in assisting to evade military duty.
The investigation into Üçok's alleged criminal group was launched by the İstanbul Prosecutor's Office in August 2008. Photographs and camera footage obtained during the investigation now form the backbone of the charges against Üçok and Murat Tugay Tepe, another suspect. The names of those arrested by the court in front of which they appeared on Sunday were Fehmi Suna, Ömer Uçar, Tahir Mete Turan, İsmail Es, Taylan Özgür Düşko and Tepe. Five of the suspects were arrested on charges of membership in an organization established to commit a crime while Tepe was arrested on charges of “setting up an organization to commit a crime” and “attempted looting.”
Six others, all detained in the same investigation late last week, were released, including four women.
