The trial of 41 defendants, including suspended Antalya Mayor Muhittin Böcek, began Monday in southern Türkiye in a wide-ranging corruption and bribery case tied to alleged irregularities within the Antalya Metropolitan Municipality.
The first hearing was held at the Antalya 6th High Criminal Court, where Böcek appeared alongside several co-defendants, including his son Mustafa Gökhan Böcek and Ilker Arslan, a former senior official in the Antalya Police Department who had been suspended from duty.
Five of the defendants are currently in custody. The hearing began with the verification of identities and the reading of a summary of the indictment.
Several members of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), including Deputy Chair Gökan Zeybek and a number of lawmakers, attended the hearing along with Antalya Deputy Mayor Büşra Özdemir, the defendants’ relatives and numerous observers.
The case stems from a corruption investigation coordinated by the Antalya Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office. Authorities launched the probe in 2025 into allegations of bribery, abuse of influence and financial misconduct involving municipal officials and business figures.
Böcek and his former daughter-in-law, identified by the initials Z.K., were detained on July 5, 2025. Böcek was later arrested and removed from his position as mayor by the Interior Ministry. Z.K. was released under judicial supervision with a travel ban.
Investigators determined that Böcek’s son, Mustafa Gökhan Böcek, had been abroad at the time of the initial detentions. He was taken into custody and arrested on Aug. 19, 2025, after returning to Antalya from Vienna.
The investigation expanded over the following months through a series of coordinated police operations targeting suspects connected to the municipality, including businesspeople and municipal officials.
Authorities allege that irregular financial transactions carried out through a municipal company caused approximately 399.5 million Turkish liras (nearly $10 million) in public losses.
Several suspects were detained and later arrested in multiple waves of operations between August 2025 and January 2026. Some individuals were subsequently released after cooperating with investigators under provisions related to effective remorse in Turkish law.
The indictment accepted by the Antalya 6th High Criminal Court accuses the defendants of a range of offenses, including bribery through coercion, illicit enrichment, influence peddling, money laundering, aggravated fraud and defamation.
Prosecutors are seeking prison sentences of between 15 years and six months to 44 years for Böcek on charges including coercive bribery, unjust enrichment and laundering of assets derived from criminal activity.
The indictment also calls for increased penalties under provisions related to repeated or organized offenses.
Court proceedings are expected to continue in the coming months as judges hear testimony from defendants, witnesses and legal representatives.
The operation was launched following claims that unlawful expenditures were carried out through the Infrastructure Management and Consultancy Trade Inc. (ALDAŞ), a municipally owned infrastructure management and consultancy subsidiary and Antalya Water and Wastewater Administration (ASAT).
According to the investigation file, reports prepared by a chief civil inspector appointed by the Interior Ministry and expert assessments commissioned by prosecutors concluded that irregular transactions carried out through ALDAŞ resulted in public losses totaling millions of Turkish liras.
The majority of domestic and international travel expenses incurred by officials from ASAT and the Antalya Metropolitan Municipality were paid by ALDAŞ, even though many of the trips lacked official assignment records. Prosecutors said some individuals whose flights were paid for had no professional connection to either ALDAŞ or ASAT, amounting to what investigators described as indirect embezzlement of public funds.