In the latest hearing of the Istanbul Municipality corruption trial on July 7, jailed Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu was not brought to the courtroom, and detentions of dissident journalists continued in Istanbul while the capital Ankara began hosting the NATO Summit.
The decision not to let İmamoğlu attend the trial was taken by the presiding judge after a battle of words between the two regarding the completion of the first hearing by July 9.
Although İmamoğlu was permitted to attend his two other trials — on espionage and his diploma cases on July 6— he was not brought to the court on the 63rd day, prompting an objection from his lawyer that no formal ruling had been issued to justify his absence.
When the hearing began, İmamoğlu's lawyer Tora Pekin took the floor and said his client had been kept out of the courtroom 'without a ruling.' The presiding judge replied, 'We will write the ruling during the recess.' Pekin then demanded that İmamoğlu be brought in immediately, to which the judge responded, 'We have made our decision. We will bring him in tomorrow.'
The decision to complete the current round of hearings by July 9 was declared by the judge on the 61st day of the trial but was not officially written and conveyed to the defendants.
İmamoğlu had been ejected from the courtroom on July 2 — the same day the decision was announced — following tensions over the ruling and the order of defense statements. His place in the defense order was changed once again on July 6 and moved to the end, as the last defendant. Although İmamoğlu is expected to start his defense on July 8 according to the court schedule, CHP Chair Özgür Özel said, 'Under this pressure, Mayor Ekrem will not present his defense in the first hearing. If it takes until August, so be it — no matter how far you run, when that second hearing opens, he will deliver a forceful defense and the truth will come out.'
The corruption trial involves 414 defendants, 59 of them jailed, including İmamoğlu.
İmamoğlu’s defense will start after the chair of the municipality's sports club, Fatih Keleş, and his lawyers conclude theirs.
Keleş’s lawyer also complained that his client’s right to defense was limited. He recalled the judge’s remarks made a day earlier — 'We will finish Fatih Keleş on July 7' — saying, 'You are allotting less than three minutes per alleged act in the indictment. This is a clear violation of the right to defense.'
DETENTION OF JOURNALISTS CONTINUE
BirGün daily's correspondent Kayhan Ayhan, 32, who has been sharing developments live from his X account and relaying courtroom dialogues on YouTube daily, was detained early morning on July 7. After the day-long prosecution, he was released under judicial control and with a travel ban.
Ayhan's case comes amid a widening wave of detentions targeting journalists ahead of NATO’s Ankara Summit on July 7-8. Five journalists — Buse Söğütlü, Ceren Erdoğdu, Hazar Dost, Berfin Ay, and Ayhan — have been detained over the past three days. Dost, who was detained on July 7 while shopping at a market, was also released the same day.
In addition to the journalists, around 300 were arrested including environmentalists, academics, lawyers and protestors since July 1. Police intervened against left-wing protestors who sought to gather at Kurtuluş Park in Ankara to say 'No' to NATO and detained around 75 people.
Reporters following the İmamoğlu proceedings protested Ayhan's detention and expressed concern about working in a climate of fear. Ayhan's seat in the courtroom was kept empty in solidarity while he was under detention.
An investigation was opened against Ayhan on the charge of 'publicly disseminating misleading information to the public' over two of his news reports — headlined 'The judge called the deputy a 'clown' and chaos erupted' and 'The prosecutor's response to Ekrem İmamoğlu: 'We'll put you in your place'' — as well as some of his statements on YouTube.
In his statement to police, Ayhan said he had conveyed the concrete facts and testimonies from the trial he was covering to the public without adding commentary. Although police questioning of Ayhan focused on his journalistic activities and courtroom coverage, the investigation was opened by the Terrorism Crimes Investigation Bureau of the Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor's Office.
