Analysis
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A check allegation pits Medya A.Ş. executives against each other, while Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu is expected to deliver his main defense next week, by the end of the second session of the Istanbul municipality corruption trial.
The main Istanbul Municipality corruption trial completed its 87th day on Sept. 24. The court heard nine more defendants, leaving 63 of 325 still to testify, as the presiding judge aims to complete the second session by the end of September.
Barred from social media and unable to deliver his defense at the first hearing of the Istanbul corruption trial, Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu is now challenging a court order banning the book in which he set out that defense.
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 presiding judge insisted on concluding the first hearing of the Istanbul corruption trial on July 9, thereby restricting the right to defense in the Istanbul corruption trial for the first time in the four months since it began.
Nine defendants were released at the 53rd hearing of the Istanbul Municipality’s corruption trial, bringing the total number of releases in the case to 51.
Allegations of ill-treatment, strip searches and prosecutorial threats dominated this week's hearings at the Istanbul Municipality corruption trial, as defendants described abusive detention conditions and coerced statements.
The Istanbul corruption trial completed its 12th week as plaintiffs continued to withdraw their previous statements and jailed Istanbul mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu celebrated his 55th birthday at the courtroom.
The Istanbul Municipality corruption trial reached its 19th hearing session this week, bringing some of the most dramatic courtroom scenes since proceedings began. Ekrem İmamoğlu, the CHP's presidential candidate and Istanbul's jailed mayor, set the tone for the week. Describing the indictment as "not just garbage but rotten garbage rotting inside garbage," he told the court the case had already collapsed at its foundations: "If the alleged leader of the organization does not even know the alleged members, the whole thing collapses from the start."
At the 41st hearing of the sweeping Istanbul Municipality corruption trial, nine more defendants were released ahead of Eid al-Adha, bringing the total number of remaining detainees to 68.
The 34th day of the corruption trial targeting Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu and dozens of officials linked to the CHP and Istanbul Municipality saw the mayor in tears as he questioned a defendant — soon after he declared that the allegations in the indictment were collapsing one by one.
The sixth week of the mass corruption trial of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu and more than 400 co-defendants produced some of its most dramatic courtroom exchanges. İmamoğlu and the presiding judge continued sharp exchanges while the municipality’s housing company, KİPTAŞ, chair Ali Kurt implicated senior government figures in a land scheme, and the European Court of Human Rights formally demanded answers from Ankara.