A court in Muğla has ordered the arrest of Milas Mayor Fevzi Topuz and 17 other suspects pending trial in an investigation into alleged bid rigging and forged tender documents at Milas Municipality, the Anadolu Agency (AA) reported early on Saturday.
The ruling came after a hearing that ran into the night. Of the 35 suspects referred to court, 18 were jailed pending trial, two were placed under house arrest and 15 were released under judicial control, according to AA. The mayor’s son is among those jailed. In Türkiye, "tutuklama" means detention pending trial by court order; it is not a conviction, and the suspects have not been tried.
Twenty-two suspects were brought to the courthouse after routine health checks, while 13 gave their statements by video link (the SEGBİS system) from the provinces where they were held.
What investigators allege
Detention orders were issued on 20 October, and police carried out simultaneous operations in 13 provinces: Muğla, Adana, Ankara, Bursa, Elazığ, Hakkari, Istanbul, Gaziantep, Kilis, Kocaeli, Manisa, Van and Ordu.
The suspects face accusations including forming, leading or belonging to a criminal organisation, bribery, bid rigging, forgery of official documents and aggravated fraud using public institutions as a tool, AA said.
According to the investigation file as reported, 35 tender documents belonging to 34 companies were found to be forged, and Milas Municipality approved 33 work-experience certificates for 32 companies. Investigators put the value of work that was invoiced but never carried out at 2,579,555,355 lira, or about 2.58 billion lira.
Eight companies allegedly used those certificates to take part in 25 public tenders with a combined value of about 3.71 billion lira, and the companies raised their capital by 342.88 million lira directly or indirectly, the report said. Work-experience certificates are used in Turkish public procurement to prove that a firm has completed similar jobs before, and they often decide whether a company can bid at all.
Why it matters locally
Milas is one of Muğla’s largest districts, home to Milas-Bodrum Airport and neighbouring the Bodrum peninsula, where many foreign residents and second-home owners live. The district municipality is responsible for local roads, zoning and building permits in its area, although water and sewerage are handled by the metropolitan utility MUSKİ, which recently finished a sewer network in Milas’s Ören neighbourhood.
The case is one of several municipal corruption probes in recent weeks, including an investigation in Ankara’s Etimesgut district. For readers considering a move to the area, our guide to living in Bodrum covers the wider peninsula and its links to Milas.
Sources
Photo: Wesley Tingey / Unsplash License, via Unsplash
