Sarıgül may face law suit over row with Şişli mayor

ISTANBUL

DHA photo

Turkey’s Supreme Court of Appeals has annulled the dismissal of allegations against the former mayor of Istanbul’s Şişli district, Mustafa Sarıgül, and his son Emir Sarıgül in an investigation launched after the wife of current Şişli Mayor Hayri İnönü accused the Sarıgüls of pressuring İnönü to resign using death threats. 

The high court annulled the dismissal of allegations on Dec. 3, 2015 in the investigation launched after İnönü’s wife, Nazlı İnönü, claimed in an interview with daily Hürriyet on Dec. 18, 2014 that she and her husband received death threats from Sarıgül and his son.

The Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office launched the investigation late December 2014 upon the claim and summoned Hayri and Nazlı İnönü to testify, who filed a criminal complaint in their testimony accusing Sarıgül and his son of “threatening.” 

The prosecutor’s office on Feb. 4, 2015, however, dropped the investigation, saying that there was no ground to file a lawsuit against Sarıgül and his son.

The Şişli District Municipality said in a written statement that İnönü appealed the decision of the prosecutor’s office to the Justice Ministry and that the Supreme Court of Appeals on Dec. 3, 2015 annulled the dismissal of charges ordered by the prosecutor’s office.

“I previously stated that the decision for dismissal of charges had no ground. The Court of Appeals acknowledged that I was right before the law,” the statement quoted Şişli Mayor Hayri İnönü as saying.

The move came a year after Nazlı İnönü, whose husband was elected on the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) ticket in 2014’s Mar. 30 local elections, said she and her husband had been threatened by the Sarıgüls in order to pressure her husband to resign from his current post. She added that at the time she had been worried for her children.

Nazlı İnönü, who is an associate professor in Istanbul University’s Philosophy Department, said Sarıgül, who ran for Istanbul’s mayoralty for the CHP in the March 2014 election, issued death threats against her sons.

“My sons live in the U.S. Two of them work there and one is studying. My husband had made some changes in the municipality last month. [Sarıgül] issued threats after the changes and told our sons that he had hired men from the mafia for $750,000. Upon that, my husband immediately went to the U.S. to tell them. [Sarıgül] also implied that he would have me kidnapped,” said Nazlı.

Sarıgül released a statement on Dec. 19, 2014 that strongly denied İnönü’s claims.