Galip Ozturk, the fugitive founder of Turkish intercity bus company Metro Holding, was sentenced to eight years in prison by a Georgian court on charges his lawyer called “made up.”
(Bloomberg) —
Galip Ozturk, the fugitive founder of Turkish intercity bus company Metro Holding, was sentenced to eight years in prison by a Georgian court on charges his lawyer called “made up.”
A court in Batumi on Monday handed Ozturk the sentence related to possession of illegal drugs, said Robert Grigalashvili, one of his lawyers. Ozturk will appeal the ruling, Grigalashvili said by phone.
Ozturk, who was detained in May on suspicion of possessing drugs, remains in prison. He also faces financial crime charges, which would add more years to his sentence if found guilty.
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The 58-year-old founder of Metro Turizm fled to Georgia after an appeals court in Turkey approved his life sentence related to a 1996 murder.
In a 2016 interview with Bloomberg, Ozturk voiced contempt for established Turkish corporations, which he called “white Turks.” He praised President Recep Tayyip Erdogan as “the greatest leader in the 1,000-year history of the Ottomans.”
In 2017, Ozturk resigned from the board of Metro, which is currently led by his daughter, Fatma Ozturk Gumussu. The company’s vice chairman, Ozgur Ayyildiz, didn’t respond to a phone call seeking comment.
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