94th day in the IMM case: IMM manager Erhan Karaal, who was kidnapped and beaten in June, makes his defense

The IMM trial, with 436 defendants, 53 of whom are detained, including Elected Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality (IMM) Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, continues on its 94th day, in the new courtroom of Marmara Closed Prison in Silivri.

While the defense statements of 10 people were taken yesterday, 306 of the undetained defendants, which increased to 341 people with the additional indictment against Ağaç AŞ, completed their defenses. This week, the remaining 35 people are expected to complete their defense and next week, Ekrem İmamoğlu, who could not make a defense at the first hearing, is expected to make a defense.

Yesterday, the president of the court also reiterated that they aimed to complete the second session on October 15, and also announced that they wanted to take a break for a maximum of 2 weeks and start the third session.

11.50 - HEARING STARTED

After the defendants and the court panel took their places, the hearing started.

Hüseyin Cengiz, one of the lawyers in the case, took the floor before the hearing and asked for Orhan Yıldırım, one of the people detained within the scope of the operation carried out today in Esenyurt Municipality, which is governed by trustees, to be brought to the court.

Stating that Yıldırım is one of the key figures in the additional indictment against Ağaç AŞ, Cengiz said, "He is one of the important defendants, one of the important slanderers of the combined file. For this reason, there are defendants who are detained due to his statements regarding probation, as well as defendants who are in custody. Since he is directly related to the other defendants, we demand that he be prepared by the police. There are allegations that he is working together with the trustee chairman. We request that he be brought to the hearing date this afternoon or on Thursday." "We do," he said.

The first name to come to the podium was İBB Kültür A.Ş., who was beaten and kidnapped on June 17 and was found injured 36 hours later. Deputy General Manager Erhan Karaal came.