Fenerbahçe chairman Yıldırım has new hope to overturn match-fixing verdict

Kenan BAŞARAN ISTANBUL / Hürriyet

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The prison sentence and retrial of Fenerbahçe chairman Aziz Yıldırım’s will be reviewed by an Istanbul court.On May 5, Istanbul’s 13th High Criminal Court started reviewing the files on the verdict, as well as Yıldırım’s demands for a retrial.Yıldırım, whose appeal into his six-year, three-month match-fixing case was rejected by Turkey’s Supreme Court of Appeals in January, is facing at least two years in prison if the verdict is allowed to stand.Yıldırım’s hope stems from the fact that the Specially Authorized Courts, which were overseeing the match-fixing case, were abolished earlier this year.In the last few years, the courts have been active in some Turkey’s most controversial cases. However, following the graft probe case on Dec. 17, 2013, which targeted some ministers in Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s Cabinet, the government has started to coin the idea that some members of the “parallel state” have played a role in those cases.The match-fixing case alleges that several matches during the 2010-11 Super League season were manipulated.