The deputy mayor of Üsküdar, a district on the Asian side of Istanbul, was among 20 detained on Tuesday in an operation targeting corruption at the municipality run by the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP).
Authorities said the investigation, which netted Filiz Deveci and municipal bureaucrats, focused on allegations of bribery in exchange for building permits handed out by the municipality.
More than 20 mayors governing CHP municipalities were detained or arrested in the past two years on charges of corruption, along with dozens of municipal bureaucrats. The CHP has won the municipal elections in Üsküdar for the first time in more than two decades in 2024.
A statement by the Chief Prosecutor’s Office said N.A., director of the municipality’s subsidiary Kent A.Ş., was assigned as “deputy mayor” at the municipality, though he was not the official deputy. The statement said the subsidiary acted as a front company for “illegal revenues” collected from contractors seeking building permits from the municipality. N.A. and other suspects from Kent A.Ş. are also accused of acting like members of the municipal department in charge of issuing building permits, greenlighting or rejecting permits, though they were not authorized.
Prosecutors say the suspects set up a secret database and assigned colors to contractors, determining how much they were supposed to pay. They also held meetings with Deveci to decide upon the amount of (bribes) to be asked from contractors in exchange for permits.
