Visit from Özgür Özel to Akpolat: 'We cannot guarantee how developments will progress'

CHP General Chairman Özgür Özel visited Beşiktaş Mayor Rıza Akpolat at Paşakapısı Prison following Akpolat's arrest.

After the visit, Özel stated, "We have always maintained our respect for all political parties and their voters. However, how can we show respect to an understanding that applies enemy law? From this point on, we cannot guarantee how developments will progress. Because ultimately, we are a side that has declared war. We will respond in the same way as the response given to us," he said.

"THERE IS NO EXPLAINABLE ASPECT"

Özel, who said, "We are in meetings with all our relevant boards regarding this issue," added, "Today, our president was transferred to Paşakapısı Prison in the morning. This is a prison where civil servants are held. We conveyed our request for a meeting to the Minister. We thank him. In the last troubling process that lasted nearly a month, we expressed our mutual discomfort. It is important that this visitation permission is granted quickly today. However, ultimately, there is no acceptable or explainable aspect to Rıza Akpolat being in prison. Because according to the relevant law, he is not responsible for the tender, and he has no signature," he stated.

CONVEYED AKPOLAT'S WORDS

Özel also conveyed Akpolat's words, saying, "Just a moment ago, while saying goodbye to him, he said one last thing, and we laughed bitterly. He said: 'I am accused of being a member of an organization; I met with other members of the organization in custody.' He is currently in prison with six others and is in the same cell with seven. He meets in the detention center with both the person labeled as the leader of the criminal organization and everyone included in this organization. There is no phone call, no money transfer, no recording, no eyewitness. There is no evidence at all. He is extremely upset to face such a huge lie and slander. But he also states: 'The resistance of being innocent and just gives me strength.' I saw this in him," he said.

"HE IS BEING PUNISHED"

Özel stated, "His health is good. He is just tired from not being able to sleep for days. Other than that, his morale is high. He has no doubt that he will be acquitted at the end of this process," and concluded his statements with the following words: "We have no doubt either. However, there is an obvious setup. A young politician, a president elected in Beşiktaş with a record vote from the Republican People's Party. Unfortunately, he is being punished solely for this reason.

He sent his regards through me to the outside. He sent his first greetings to the employees of Beşiktaş Municipality before his family. He thanks them for their solidarity and tells them: 'Seven thousand people in Beşiktaş benefit from our soup kitchen, our public market, and our public cards. The seven thousand poor in Beşiktaş are entrusted to you. May that service not be interrupted.'

He embraces and greets the children in the nursery and the students staying in the dormitories of Beşiktaş Municipality and conveys his message to them."