Up to five years sought for Fenerbahçe Chairman Yıldırım

ISTANBUL - Anadolu Agency

Up to five years is sought for Yıldırım for insulting a judge and a manager. AA photo

An Istanbul prosecutor is seeking up to five years of jail time for Fenerbahçe Chairman Aziz Yıldırım for insulting a judge during a press conference, saying that the judge had been bribed.

An indictment demanding up to five years and four months in prison has been prepared against the Istanbul sports club chairman on accusations of insulting judge Dilek Gökkoyun and former manager of Fenerbahçe, Recep Özcan, at a press conference held June 27.

Sıddık İlgar, the Istanbul prosecutor who prepared the indictment, is seeking a sentence of one year and four months to two years and eight months of imprisonment for insulting Gökkaya in the media, and a sentence of four months to two years and eight months for insulting Özcan.

Yıldırım had held a press conference to announce his statement about the decision by European football’s governing body, UEFA, to ban Fenerbahçe from continental competitions for two years due to match fixing. Yıldırım was given a six-year prison sentence for match fixing, but he was released last year for time served. The verdict is pending appeal.

Özcan applied to the court claiming that Yıldırım was ineligible to run the club after his match-fixing ban, and the chairman claimed that he had bribed the judge. “They have bribed the judge in Konya,” Yıldırım said June 27. “They are trying to reach decisions that we cannot administer Fenerbahçe. Unfortunately he can reach such a decision because he is used to bribing judges and other things, and from now on you can buy people at the top of firms in Turkey by finding and arranging a judge. Look, I say you can arrange it, shame on the people, we can not trust the judiciary here,” Yıldırım is quoted as having said in the indictment.