Turkey, May 07: Turkish police have kept in custody 17 of the 34 Izmir municipal officials and personnel detained over allegations of corruption and engagement in tender rigging.
Izmir Metropolitan Municipality Secretary General Pervin senel Genc was among those arrested, Turkey’s media reported on Friday.
Police raided the municipality buildings in the Aegean provinces of Izmir and Adyin on May 2.
The 34 suspects were interrogated at the prosecutor’s office in Izmir and 14 of them were released. The remaining 20 were referred to a court Thursday night.
The court decided to keep 17 of the detainees and release three pending a trial.
“The judge who made the decision [for the arrest] is the one who ordered the search [of the municipalities] and the detainments. This is inconsistent with the law,” said Sema Pektas, the chairwoman of Izmir Bar Association. “We sent an [objection demand] for this but it was not accepted.”
She said the Bar Association would appeal the decision.
The suspects were directly transferred from the courthouse to prison, the agency said.
Many documents were confiscated and all data on the municipalities’ computer hard drives were duplicated in the operations.
—–Agencies