Istanbul mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, the detained main political rival of Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, on April 11 attended a first court hearing, which took place in Silivri prison, where he is held, local media reported on April 11.

Imamoglu faces many different court cases. The hearing he attended concerned a case in which he is accused of insulting Istanbul chief public prosecutor Akin Gurlek.

Since March 14, five days before police swooped on Imamoglu's home and detained him, bne IntelliNews has been reiterating: “In 2024, Akin Gurlek was appointed as chief public prosecutor in Istanbul. Journalists, who claim that Gurlek’s job is to conduct operations against Imamoglu, currently seen as a politician that could one day succeed Erdogan, are arrested.”

Silivri prison

The mayor’s lawyer criticised the transfer of the case from Caglayan courthouse in Istanbul to Silivri prison. The judge dismissed the lawyer’s petition over the matter.

"This is the first time I am being tried, blame it on my ignorance"

The judge asked Imamoglu’s opinion about a request from Gurlek’s lawyer to participate in the hearing. The lawsuit was filed by the public prosecutor as a criminal case and Gurlek requested to personally join the case.

“I do not know what to answer regarding the request to join. This is the first time I am being tried, blame it on my ignorance,” Imamoglu responded.

After a recess called by the judge to discuss the request of Gurlek’s lawyer, Imamoglu delivered his statement of defence.

"Why am I here?"

“I question why I am here and I have difficulty in understanding it,” he said, adding that he was previously in the same courtroom 10 to 15 times to watch the "Ergenekon" trials.

Same courtroom where "Ergenekon" trials were held

The Ergenekon trials were held during 2007-2011 as part of an effort seen as designed to eliminate Turkey's then prevailing military tutelage regime. The defendants were jailed at Silivri prison and the trials unfolded in the same courtroom in which Imamoglu appeared.

The Ergenekon trials were, like Imamoglu's case, political. They started out with well-known figures of Operation Gladio in Turkey and later on expanded to cover all opponents of the government.

“I wonder why I am here? I wonder why I am defending myself in your presence?” Imamoglu said, addressing the judges.

Targeted TRT and Anadolu Agency

“Isn't it a shame for [the state-run news service] Anadolu Agency? [Public broadcaster] TRT should broadcast these trials of ours,” the mayor also said, repeating a demand he previously made.

Instruction to launch investigation

Imamoglu put a few questions to the prosecutor of the case:

• Did the prosecutor, who launched the investigation, listen to my speech [mentioning him] by chance and open an investigation, or was it based on an instruction?

• Did the prosecutor listen to the words for a second time?

• Was an investigation ordered based on a screenshot sent via WhatsApp, not based on a live broadcast?

• The statements in that screenshot have nothing to do with what I said. Has this been confirmed?

Don’t accuse Ekrem, end up in jail

Imamoglu posed some more questions (it is a common situation in Turkey to see a political prisoner try the court rather than the other way round):

• What good does it do to bring my friend from 40 years ago, people I did business with 15 years ago, to the courthouse by force to obtain bad words about Ekrem?

• What good does it do to jail them if they don't say something bad about Ekrem?

• What good does it do to call my neighbors in Beylikduzu (the district in Istanbul where Imamoglu was mayor between 2014 and 2019) to testify, or even to say “come and talk” without a call to testify?

• Who had the mind to knock on the door of my mother and father's summer house?

• Whose mind was behind the move to open the door with a locksmith?

• What are they trying to do?

• Which "red-handed" case are you talking about?

Detained protesters

Reflecting on the 300 young people arrested during the mass protests held against his jailing, Imamoglu said: “It's a shame, it's a sin... We all have children, we all have children. We have mothers and fathers. It's a shame, it's a sin.”

Threatening Gurlek

“'Chief Prosecutor, I am telling you, we will erase the mind that governs you from the minds of this nation in order to save your children from these treatments. We will uproot it, so no one will come knocking on your children’s door,'” Imamoglu recalled saying in his past remarks about Gurlek.

“Where is the threat in this? Whom did I threaten?”  Imamoglu asked.

Next hearing, June 16

Following Imamoglu’s remarks, the judge decided to delay the next hearing to June 16 with the aim of providing the prosecutors with the required time to prepare their indictment.