Yıldırım hospitalized with pancreas trouble

ISTANBUL - Hürriyet Daily News

Fenerbahçe chairman Aziz Yıldırım (C) is taken to the Şişli Etfal Hospital after suffering a pancreas problem. Yıldırım has been in Metris Prison since July 2011. DHA photo

Fenerbahçe’s jailed chairman Aziz Yıldırım was hospitalized yesterday due to a pancreas problem.
Yıldırım, who has been in Metris Prison pending match-fixing charges since July, was taken to the Şişli Etfal Hospital after developing a problem with his pancreas.

“The test results look serious unfortunately,” Şeref Dede, one of Yıldırım’s lawyers, said yesterday. “But the president is strong.”

Due to his health condition, Yıldırım did not attend the 17th hearing of the match-fixing case, where a total of 93 football officials, players and coaches are being tried.

The highlight of yesterday’s defenses came from former footballer Ümit Karan, who said he “may have deliberately not passed [the ball] to [Eskişehirspor teammate] Sezer Öztürk” while playing against Trabzonspor in a 2010-2011 Super League game.

Karan, a former player of Galatasaray, Fenerbahçe’s archrival, said that “as a Galatasaray fan, he did not want Fenerbahçe to win the title.”

Fenerbahçe won the title over Trabzonspor with only one goal difference that season. Officials from both clubs are listed as suspects in the case.

The Turkish Football Federation cleared all clubs from match-fixing in its own investigation, but banned two Fenerbahçe board members, İlhan Ekşioğlu and Şekip Mosturoğlu, from football for three and one years respectively.

Fethullah Gülen has filed a criminal complaint against three Fenerbahçe club members for claiming his community is behind the match-fixing case, daily Vatan reported.

Gülen’s lawyers seek compensation worth 10,000 Turkish Liras from Ogün Altıparmak, Funda Sibel Pala and Özgür Kandil for their speeches claiming the self-exiled cleric was involved in the match-fixing case.
The three members made speeches during the club’s congress on May 19.

In several statements made through his lawyer, Yıldırım has repeatedly claimed that the case was “not about match-fixing” and instead was a plot to take over Fenerbahçe.

The idea was championed by many Fenerbahçe fans, who took it to the streets several times, with the slogan “[The Gülen] community cannot mess with Fener,” in reference to Fethullah Gülen’s Islamic community.