IPA Chair Gökce: 'I have been detained for 600 days, with no evidence, no testimony against me'

Detained IPA Chair Buğra Gökce stated in a written statement shared from his social media account that he has remained in prison for 600 days and that this exceeds the legal maximum limit.

According to figures cited in Gökce's statement, 425 detained and non-detained defendants were questioned in court, 50 complainants and witnesses testified; however, no one came forward who mentioned Gökce's name or claimed to have ordered him tea. Gökce noted that the legal maximum detention period of one year for the alleged offenses can be extended by half in necessary cases, creating an 18-month upper limit that has now been exceeded by two months. He emphasized that according to legal doctrine, he should be automatically released once this period expires.

Gökce argued that the tenders at the center of the allegations were awarded by municipal subsidiaries such as Media Inc. and Culture Inc., that the specifications have remained unchanged for 30 years, and that officials up to ministerial level have signed the same tender documents. Writing "If a conviction judgment were rendered against me and became final, I should not spend even a single day in prison," Gökce posed the question: "Why am I still detained?"

Gökce's statement, in which he described his life confined to a 12-square-meter cell with a 22-square-meter fenced sky, bore the date of November 8, 2026.