16 June 2025
Fugitive defendants of the Ezgi Apartment case, in which 35 people lost their lives during the earthquake, Sami Kervancıoğlu and Mustafa Pekel, filed a complaint against BirGün newspaper reporter İsmail Arı through their lawyer Ali Uçkaç. Kervancıoğlu and Pekel, who have been fugitives for about 650 days and face hundreds of years in prison, claimed that Arı committed the crimes of “attempting to influence a fair trial” (Article 288 of the Turkish Penal Code), “publicly disseminating misleading information” (Article 217/A of the Turkish Penal Code), “violation of confidentiality of an investigation” (Article 285 of the Turkish Penal Code), and “defamation” (Article 267 of the Turkish Penal Code). Within the scope of the investigation launched by the Kahramanmaraş Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office, Arı gave his statement at the Çankaya District Police Department in Ankara.
