8 Defendants Released in Istanbul Corruption Case as Imamoglu Calls Indictment a 'Document of Filth'

An Istanbul court released eight defendants in the major corruption case targeting the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality, at hearing No. 109, in which 436 defendants appeared, including 46 detainees, most notably ousted mayor Ekrem Imamoglu.

The court issued a release order for each of: lawyer Mehmet Pehlivan, Fatos Pinar Turker, Fatos Aydik, Serhat Kapki, Ahmet Koksal, Onur Aldi, Volkan Atis, and Murat Ur. The prosecutors at the hearing had demanded that all detained defendants remain in custody. The hearing was postponed to January 4, 2027.

The chairman of the board of Medya A.S., Murat Ongun, demanded his release, asserting before the court that none of about 500 witnesses had mentioned his name in any context related to bribery. He noted that "we should not have been detained legally in the first place," asserting that the defendants invented a result without cause and then turned the detainees into confessing witnesses.

The president of the Istanbul Sports Club, Fatih Kilic, affirmed that the indictment is not based on any tangible material evidence against him, explaining that there is "no video recording, no call recording, and no bank movement," and added that there is no invoice, contract, letter, or a single written piece of evidence, and that he was arrested on fabricated statements.

As for Imamoglu, who has been behind bars for 602 days according to his own statement, he described the indictment as "a document of slander that has now been documented," noting that "the secret witnesses on whom the case was built were absent from the scene today," and concluded that "the prosecution's claim has gone bankrupt."