Republican People’s Party (CHP) deputy Enis Berberoğlu, who has been in prison since June, has responded to claims made by Turkish President Tayyip Erdoğan about speaking if he is released and said he does not have anything to confess since there was no crime, the Doğan news agency reported on Monday.
Berberoğlu, who issued a statement through his lawyers and accused Erdoğan of having bad intentions, said: “I must finally say that justice might be prevented from manifesting itself, they might delay my acquittal and my suffering might be extended. But under no circumstances will I come out as a criminal, maligner and confessor since there is no crime.”
Stating that the people who visit him are his lawyers and CHP deputies, Berberoğlu said they can be consulted for information about their conversations during the meetings.
“The person [Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu] who runs the main opposition party tries to act preemptively and muddy the waters over concern that the case of a deputy who is now in prison due to a crime against the country could reach himself,” Erdoğan had said during a speech to party members in Antalya province.
“Don’t be surprised if a link between Kılıçdaroğlu and the person [Berberoğlu] in prison is revealed soon. I am receiving different news from the prison. ‘I will speak if I am not released,’ says the person in prison,” added Erdoğan implying that Kılıçdaroğlu could stand trial in relation to the case of arrested CHP deputy Berberoğlu.
CHP spokesperson Bülent Tezcan said that Erdoğan admitted to a plot about Kılıçdaroğlu and Berberoğlu. Tezcan claimed Erdoğan was proposing that Berberoğlu blame Kılıçdaroğlu for what happened and be released in return.
Berberoğlu was arrested in June immediately after he was handed down a prison sentence of 25 years for leaking information for a report on National Intelligence Organization (MİT) trucks transporting weapons to jihadists in Syria.