Ruffa Gutierrez-Bektas may face up to 12 years imprisonment

Ruffa Gutierrez-Bektas may face up to 12 years imprisonment if she fails to appear before Turkish court to answer cases against her, ABS-CBN News reported Monday.

In an exclusive interview with ABS-CBN Europe bureau chief Danny Buenafe, Ruffa's husband and Turkish millionaire Yilmaz Bektas said she committed a serious offense in Turkey by not revealing that she was still married to American Richard Daloia when she secured documents as the Yilmaz's wife.
Yilmaz said a Turkish court is now after his estranged wife for falsifying public documents in order to secure her Turkish passport, national I.D. and driver's license.

He also said that the Turkish judge in charge of the case already knows about Ruffa’s televised admission that she had a previous marriage in the US in 1999, a fact not specified in documents she filed in Turkey.

The couple aired their dirty laundry in public and exchanged angry accusations in the newspapers and when they appeared in separate television interviews in the past two months.

"Legal protector"

Yilmaz has made himself Ruffa's "legal protector" in Turkey, saying she is deeply concerned about her and the outcome of the four cases being filed by a Turkish court against her.

Yilmaz said Ruffa committed document fraud, a serious crime in the European Union (EU) and Turkey, and that the former Ms. World pageant winner would have to go back to Istanbul to answer the charges against her.

He also warned Ruffa that she may also be blacklisted in the US, making the Philippines her only safe zone.

He said that he is still open to getting back Ruffa and their two daughters who are now staying with her in the Philippines.

Before that can happen however, Yilmaz said he and Ruffa still need to talk face-to-face in order to discuss their children's future.

Such a meeting seems difficult to arrange, now that as Yilmaz himself admits, he and Ruffa are on a love-hate relationship over the telephone.

Yilmaz said that he and Ruffa are now arguing over her showbiz career, which she has been trying to revive following her separation from Yilmaz.

Apologies, movie?

Yilmaz said that if ever he, Ruffa and their daughters ever get back together again, she would have to admit her mistakes and apologize to him.

He said that he already did his part in apologizing to Ruffa and her mother Annabelle Rama for all the cruel things he said against them during the height of his anger.

He laughed off suggestions that his marital woes would make a good movie, although he said that the idea itself is not objectionable.

With a report from Danny Buenafe, ABS-CBN Europe News Bureau
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