Fenerbahçe executives acquitted from match-fixing case

ISTANBUL

The former chairperson of the Fenerbahçe football club, Aziz Yıldırım, and 22 other suspects have been acquitted of all charges on match-fixing, seven years after Yıldırım was released from prison in the case he claimed to be “a plot” against him by FETÖ.

An Istanbul court was handling the new trial after the Supreme Court overturned an earlier trial, which implicated Yıldırım and others in a match-fixing case.

A verdict of acquittal was given for former Fenerbahçe executives, including Yıldırım and İlhan Ekşioğlu, at the hearing held on Nov. 6, in addition to the 19 defendants who were previously acquitted.

Yıldırım was jailed in 2012 for more than a year after he was accused of running a match-fixing scheme and a criminal gang.

He was later acquitted of all charges against him when a new trial found that the judges, prosecutors and police officers who helped in his imprisonment may have had conspired against Fenerbahçe and other teams to serve the interests of FETÖ.

Throughout the early trial by FETÖ-linked judges and prosecutors, Yıldırım claimed that evidence, including wiretapped conversations allegedly revealing match-fixing deals, was forged.