"Metro Holding" releases a statement regarding Galip Ozturk:
"As it is known to the public, during the process of investigation for the tax evasion, production-usage of false settlement documents and the possible fact of legalization of illegal income, in order to obtain the necessary evidence, on 31st of May, 2022, investigative actions were carried out at the residential address of Galip Ozturk, as well as in the persons and companies related to him. As a result, allegedly narcotic and psychotropic substances were found, on the basis of which, on 27th of February, 2023, the Batumi City Court found Galip Ozturk guilty of the illegal purchase and storage of narcotic and psychotropic substances and sentenced him to 8 years imprisonment of liberty.
As soon as the verdict was known to the public, it became a subject of interpretation by various interested groups and among them, a number of unverified statements were spread through a mass media. Accordingly, The "Metro Holding" considers it necessary to explain several important circumstances:
Upon his arrest, Mr. Galip stated that he had no cconnection with the allegedly seized narcotic and psychotropic substances, considered himself innocent and named the viability of the companies of holding and the maintenance of employees as the main issue.
He also expressed the willingness to cooperate with the investigative bodies in order to resolve the existing misunderstandings in a timely manner and to prevent the holding companies from the expected risks that might be related to the termination of operations.
Despite a number of difficulties, the past period has revealed that within the available limited resources, the holding has adequately coped with the challenges, during this time it was able to fully maintain the working process in all the companies and the number of employed people is unchanged.
In the light of the numerous charity activities carried out over the years, which Galip Ozturk continues to do despite his imprisonment, every person who has been personally touched by his act of kindness is willing to contribute to the improvement of Mr. Galip’s condition. Therefore, on behalf of the holding, we would like to express our gratitude towards everyone who stood by us during this difficult period and tried to help us within the frame of their abilities.
However, herby, we respectfully request to that public groups and political associations not to use this issue for the purpose of accumulating personal dividends and not to voice such opinions that do not fully correspond and expresses the position of Galip Ozturk, his family and Metro Holding.
Evidently, we are not willing to harm the ongoing processes with a certain political content and against our will to be associated with specific groups.
We would like to emphasize that we dissociate ourselves from all the statements or positions that are not expressed on behalf of the Ozturk family and/or "Metro Holding". We clarify that we consider the current events only from a legal frame. The lawyers of our group are actively working to take further legal steps, which clearly includes appealing the decision of the Batumi City Court. Based on the high public interest and within the framework of the strategy of the defense side, we will gradually public a number of legal details, based on which we will be able to defend our position under the conditions of fair justice.
In the given moment, Mr. Galip maintains an unwavering position and expresses his will to complete all the legal processes as soon as possible, so that the situation created or the statements made by various groups (whose control is unfortunately beyond our power) not to harm the business environment, not to affect the arrangement of investors and not to prevent the inflow of direct investments into the country.
The founder and management of Metro Holding are aware of their huge responsibility towards the country, therefore, in order to avoid the above-mentioned danger, we once again express our full readiness to intensively cooperate with state agencies to find the truth", - the statement reads.
