Istanbul Police Chief Sacked amid High-Profile Bribery Probe
TEHRAN (Tasnim) - Istanbul Police Chief Hüseyin Çapkın has confirmed with a brief statement that he was dismissed from his post.
"I'm a public officer. I've served for 4 and a half years here (in Istanbul) with honour," he said. "But now I'm asked to return to headquarters. Let's hope for the best."
Istanbul and Ankara police staged morning raids December 17 as part of a probe into tender fraud and bribery operation allegations, detaining over 80 people.
There are three members of the Cabinet whose sons are among those detainees; Interior Minister Muammer Güler, Environment and Urban Planning Minister Erdoğan Bayraktar and Economy Minister Zafer Çağlayan. The suspects are, respectively, Barış Güler, Abdullah Oğuz Bayraktar and Kaan Çağlayan.
Two of Çapkın's assistants, as well as four assistant chiefs, including chiefs involved in the execution of a corruption operation targeting high-profile figures, were also dismissed from their posts Dec. 18, AFP reported.
The two assistants of Çapkın dismissed were Deputy Police Chief Mahir Çakallı, from the Organized Crimes Bureau, and Deputy Police Chief Hamza Tosun, from the Financial Crimes Bureau.
Two deputy chiefs at the Organized Crime Bureau, Şenol Demir and Ahmet Kalender, as well as two deputy chiefs of Financial Crimes, Yasin Topçu and Kazım Aksoy, were also dismissed from their posts.
The dismissal of six police chief deputies came after five police commissioners in the Istanbul Police Department, were discharged from their offices on Dec. 18.
