High court rules for retrial of Fenerbahçe chairman Yıldırım in match-fixing case
The 13th Istanbul High Criminal Court ruled June 23 for the retrial of several convicted suspects, including Fenerbahçeâs outspoken chairman Aziz Yıldırım, in the match-fixing case that had shaken the countryâs football scene.
The court has accepted the retrial of the suspects for charges of being a member of a criminal organization, while it rejected Yıldırımâs demand for retrial on the grounds that the investigation was part of a plot against the convicted suspects.
Yıldırım, whose appeal into his six-year, three-month match-fixing case was rejected by Turkeyâs Supreme Court of Appeals in January, is facing at least two years in prison if the verdict stands.
The convicted suspects were able to file yet another appeal after the Specially Authorized Courts, which also oversaw the match-fixing case, were abolished last March.
The prosecutor of the case, Mirza CoÅkun, pleaded for a retrial, arguing Yıldırım had been mistakenly accused regarding some of the charges, while others were aggravated compared to the information contained in the investigation files.
Fenerbahçe officials, who have repeatedly denounced a conscious persecution against the club, were quick to hail the ruling.
âWe want a fair trial. We didnât ask for amnesty,â the clubâs spokesperson Mahmut Uslu told daily Hürriyet following the ruling.
â80 percent of the Turkish people believe this has been an unfair trial,â he added.
Fenerbahçe was banned for two years from all European competitions due to the match-fixing allegations, a ban that was put into force this year after a stay of execution.
Despite having clinched the...
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