CHP municipalities investigation and the informant AIA

The IMM investigation, which started in March and went down in Turkish political history as a "judicial coup", has extended to the CHP municipalities of Izmir, Adana, Antalya and Adıyaman in recent weeks - with Erdoğan's signal. It is possible that the operation will cover all CHP municipalities.

The only "evidence" underlying the detention and arrest of mayors is the statement of an informant witness named AIA, who had previously conducted billions of lira worth of tenders with AKP municipalities and state institutions.

It must be interesting for everyone that this person, who started his professional career by selling toast in a primary school cafeteria in Diyarbakır, continued with statements that would have CHP metropolitan mayors arrested.

Although it is indisputable that the institution of "effective repentance" or "confession", which we have discussed in various aspects in our previous articles, can contribute to the dismantling of mafia and other criminal organizations, the exposure of crimes committed by these organizations, reaching the truth, and the establishment of justice, it is also a fact that these tools also "eliminate free will" and "undermine individuals' right to a 'fair' trial."

After the July 15, 2016 coup attempt, it was revealed that this institution was being abused a lot in Türkiye. In fact, it is seen that a "broad application" is being made to the vast majority of people who want to benefit from TCK Article 221. The requests of people who want to benefit from TCK Article 221 are accepted by the vast majority, these people are released if they are under arrest, and the statements they make are seen as "solid evidence" against other people.

The file of IMM and other CHP municipalities seems to be a blessing for July 15. Because the claim of an informant named AIA regarding Adana Metropolitan Municipality Mayor Zeydan Karalar is that "11 years ago, he was asked for money in a tender he received from Seyhan Municipality". AIA showed "two workers working in his own company" as witnesses to this claim. The mayor of a big city like Adana can be taken into custody because of such an illogical plot. He is officially "stealing informants, playing informants". This is called "investigation".

The statements of the AIA show once again that confessor statements are currently considered as "solid evidence" by the Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor's Office. However, confessor witness statements cannot be given any weight, and even the "admissibility" of such evidence is debatable. Because, it is always difficult or impossible to examine a witness statement that accuses an individual in the abstract and may narrate imaginary events.

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) emphasized in a case it concluded that "the cooperation of confessors is a very important weapon in the fight against the mafia", and added that "however, the use of statements given by confessors also creates difficult problems; "because such statements are open to manipulation by their nature and may have been given with the aim of gaining the advantages granted to confessors by Italian law or with feelings of personal revenge."

The Court went on to note that "such statements may sometimes be ambiguous and the risk that a person may be accused and detained on the basis of unsubstantiated, if not irrelevant, allegations cannot be underestimated" (Contrada v. Italy, application no. 27143/95, Commission decision of 14 January 1997, Decision and Reports, v. 88-B, p. 112).

Therefore, the Court opines that "as the national courts have also accepted, the statements of the confessors must be supported by other evidence, and, moreover, a hearsay must necessarily be supported by objective evidence."

The investigation into CHP municipalities as a whole once again demonstrates how dangerous the institution of confession is in terms of the right to a fair trial. In any case, AIA is a candidate to become a special name in the “history of confession.”