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Türkiye

Court releases eight defendants, including İmamoğlu’s lawyer Mehmet Pehlivan, in the İBB corruption trial

What happened
An Istanbul court ordered the release of eight of the 46 jailed defendants in the trial over the Istanbul municipality, among them Ekrem İmamoğlu’s lawyer Mehmet Pehlivan.
Why it matters
The prosecutor had asked for all 46 to stay in custody; İmamoğlu, jailed for 602 days, told the court the case against him has collapsed.
What’s next
The trial was adjourned to 4 January 2027.

How this story developed

  1. 23:59First report
  2. 00:082nd source
  3. 00:08Confirmed
  4. 00:11+3 outlets in 23 min
  5. 04:006th source
  6. 05:537th source
  1. 23:59First reportBBC Türkçe
  2. 00:082nd sourceDiken
  3. 00:08ConfirmedWas: Single source
  4. 00:11+3 outlets in 23 minNTV, Euronews Türkçe and Habertürk
  5. 04:006th sourceCumhuriyet
  6. 05:53Latest7th sourceSözcü
Full story

The ruling

The İstanbul 33rd High Criminal Court on Thursday ordered the release of eight defendants in the corruption trial over the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality (İBB), at the end of the trial’s third session. Among them is Mehmet Pehlivan, the lawyer of Ekrem İmamoğlu, the city’s mayor, who was removed from office after his arrest.

According to BBC Türkçe, Diken and NTV, the others released are Fatoş Pınar Türker, general manager of the municipal company Medya A.Ş.; Fatoş Ayık, its purchasing and tenders manager; Onur Aldı, deputy general manager of Kültür A.Ş.; the businessmen Serhat Kapki and Ahmet Köksal; Volkan Ateş, a weighbridge supervisor; and Murat Or, an employee of Ağaç A.Ş.

The decision came on the 109th day of hearings. The prosecutor had asked the court to keep all 46 detained defendants in custody. In total 436 people are on trial, İmamoğlu among them. Euronews Türkçe reported that the next hearing is set for 4 January 2027.

İmamoğlu’s defence

Before the interim ruling, İmamoğlu said he and his co-defendants had been held in Silivri for 602 days, and argued that in 20 months of investigation and prosecution not a single piece of evidence, image, sound recording or document had been found against him, Habertürk reported. He asked for all of them to be released at once.

“Despite a collapsed indictment, the decisions to continue detention issued at every review are not law but oppression. I condemn these decisions in the strongest terms.”

Ekrem İmamoğlu, Habertürk(translated)

He said prosecutors are seeking a total of 2,430 years in prison for him, yet asked him only 10 to 15 questions in cross-examination. The presiding judge, Selçuk Aylan, warned him during his speech, once about his tone of voice and once for gesturing with his arms.

The secret witnesses

Much of the defence focused on secret witnesses. BBC Türkçe reported that İmamoğlu told the court only two of the 21 secret witnesses had appeared, and that the witnesses whose statements led to his arrest, code-named Meşe, Çınar and Doğan, were nowhere to be seen. The two heard on 4 November, Gürgen and Zeytin, said they had no direct knowledge of the allegations.

Other jailed defendants also asked to be freed. Medya A.Ş. chairman Murat Ongun said not one person had linked his name to a bribe, and İBB sports club president Fatih Keleş said there was no recording, bank transaction, invoice or message behind the charges against him, NTV reported. Neither was among those released.