A verdict was handed down in the case at Ankara 33rd High Criminal Court in which Alp Arslan, the former Deputy Provincial Police Chief responsible for the Organized Crime Branch of the Ankara Police Department at the time, former Public Order Branch Director Oben Özay, Chief Inspector Ercan Karagöz and police officer Serdar Coşkun were tried over allegations that Ayhan Bora Kaplan had been bribed. The defendants who were not in custody and Kaplan, who was not in custody in this case but was detained in the Ayhan Bora Kaplan criminal organization case, attended the hearing. The prosecution requested the acquittal of all defendants, stating that there was no sufficient and conclusive evidence. The defendants also requested acquittal. Kaplan argued that the police had fabricated a case against him and that the trials were a “conspiracy.” Arslan denied the accusation, saying that his asset declarations had been filed regularly and that his income and expenditure were proportionate. The court acquitted all defendants on the grounds that it had not reached a firm conclusion that the crimes had been committed. It also decided to file a criminal complaint against Arslan over his contradictory statements. Arslan was accused of having 7 Rolex watches worth approximately 250 thousand dollars purchased, while the other three police officers were accused of depositing large sums of money inconsistent with their financial profiles.
Why it matters
The ruling means that no criminal liability was established against the defendants in relation to the bribery allegations; as a result, the watches and money transfers at the center of the accusations did not lead to convictions in this case. The case also keeps alive the debate over the actions carried out by police officers because of allegations linked to a separate organized crime case in which Ayhan Bora Kaplan is being held in custody. Kaplan’s defense that the police had fabricated a case against him is not considered to have been additionally corroborated by the court’s acquittal ruling. The court’s filing of a criminal complaint against Alp Arslan over contradictory statements creates a new line of inquiry independent of the acquittal ruling; how this complaint will conclude remains unclear.
Background
Ayhan is not a new name in the FikirPilot archive: we published a news report mentioning this name in the past 90 days; that article was dated September 4, 2026.