Match-fixing indictment seeks up to five years in prison for Lütfi Arıboğan

The Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office has prepared an indictment against former TFF First Deputy President Lütfi Arıboğan in an investigation into FETÖ’s 2011 match-fixing plot in football. Arıboğan faces a prison sentence of between two years and six months and five years for knowingly and willingly aiding the organization without being a member.

The Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office has completed its investigation into an alleged match-fixing plot organized by FETÖ in football in 2011. The indictment seeks a prison sentence of between two years and six months and five years for Lütfi Arıboğan, who was the Turkish Football Federation (TFF) First Deputy President and a member of its Executive Board in 2011 and 2012, for “knowingly and willingly aiding an armed terrorist organization without being a member of it.”

The indictment was sent to the Istanbul 25th High Criminal Court. Judicial control measures have been imposed on Arıboğan, while decisions of non-prosecution were issued for Ahmet Gülüm, İlhan Helvacı and Ebru Köksal, who were listed as suspects in the investigation. Fenerbahçe Sports Club is listed in the case as the party harmed by the alleged crime.

İstanbul Adalet Sarayı (arşiv)

101 contacts with Baransu

According to the indictment, Arıboğan had 101 HTS contacts with Mehmet Baransu, a Taraf newspaper columnist convicted of membership in FETÖ, between July 13, 2011, and December 6, 2012. The indictment states that Arıboğan sent a document titled “Letter from the police department and list of names” from his institutional email address at the federation to his personal address on December 4, 2011, and then sent it to Baransu with its attachment on December 7, 2011. The information and documents conveyed to Baransu appeared in the press, and the reports were used as evidence in sports investigations conducted by the TFF and UEFA.

The indictment also details Arıboğan’s contacts with dismissed prosecutor Mehmet Berk and dismissed police chief Mutlu Ekizoğlu.

UEFA talks and the Cornu report

The prosecution says Arıboğan was part of the TFF delegation that met UEFA Chief Inspector Pierre Cornu in Nyon, Switzerland, on July 18, 2011, following the July 3, 2011, operation. Arıboğan was also part of the TFF delegation that met Cornu when he visited Istanbul on August 22-23, 2011. The indictment states that, in his report dated November 3, 2011, Cornu wrote that TFF officials had said there was absolutely no doubt that Fenerbahçe had been involved in match-fixing according to the Ethics Board’s report. Cornu also wrote that, when he asked whether there was even a 1 percent possibility that Fenerbahçe had not fixed matches, the answer was “no.”

The prosecution assessed that there was no concrete finding of an organic link between Arıboğan and the organization, but that he managed the sports investigations and talks with UEFA in line with the organization’s interests. During that period, the TFF barred Fenerbahçe from participating in the 2011-2012 UEFA Champions League; according to the indictment, the club suffered significant financial damage as a result.

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Match-fixing indictment seeks up to five years in prison for Lütfi Arıboğan