Analysis
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An Istanbul court ordered the continued detention of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, campaign director Necati Özkan, journalist Merdan Yanardağ, and businessperson Hüseyin Gün during the latest hearing in their political espionage trial.
The last hearing in the second session of the Istanbul Municipality case regarding corruption accusations closed before 6 p.m. for the first time on Sept. 17, after weeks of hearings that had stretched late into the night.
Justice Minister Akın Gürlek said a supplementary indictment is being prepared in the Istanbul Municipality corruption case, as the court’s agenda shifted from hearing detained defendants to hearing those on trial who are not in detention.
Only two of the 53 formally arrested defendants in the Istanbul Municipality trial were released on the case's 75th hearing day, as relatives of those still held broke down in tears in the courtroom.
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.
Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, who has been behind bars since March 2025, and his co-defendants are increasingly pessimistic about the outcome of the hearings in the Istanbul Municipality trial.
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 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."
"This political case will collapse," Istanbul Mayor and the CHP's presidential candidate Ekrem İmamoğlu declared repeatedly while delivering the last remarks on the 15th session of the corruption hearing. The courtroom was again full like the first days of the hearing as many were expecting a court ruling on release of several defendants. Only 18 of those under pre-trial detention were released, according to the midnight interim ruling. As expected, İmamoğlu’s executive assistant Kadriye Kasapoğlu and low profile figures like the drivers or workers were released but former CHP MP Aykut Erdoğdu was not on the list.