Tension in the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality case: NEW Party Deputy Suat Özçağdaş was removed from the hall

The IMM trial, with 414 defendants, 51 of whom are detained, including Elected Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality (IMM) Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, continues today on its 79th day in the new courtroom of the Marmara Closed Prison in Silivri.

Just before the hearing started, the court panel requested that NEW Party Deputy Suat Özçağdaş, who came to the courtroom to watch the case, be removed from the courtroom.

On July 2, when the first hearing of the case continued, the presiding judge demanded that the MPs Suat Özçağdaş and Sezgin Tanrıkulu, who reacted to Ekrem İmamoğlu's removal from the courtroom, be removed from the courtroom by saying "You cannot act as a clown here."

"GIVE ME A WRITTEN DECISION"

It was learned that following this incident, Özçağdaş was banned from attending the hearing. While the detained defendants were not yet brought to the hall, an announcement was made in the hall through the clerks. It was stated that Özçağdaş had to leave the courtroom, otherwise the hearing would not start.

Özçağdaş, who was sitting in the audience section, said, "Let him bring me a written decision. I came here. I want to watch a case." The head of the gendarmerie responded to Özçağdaş by saying, "If you insist, the court president will end the hearing." Özçağdaş said, "If he finishes, let him finish. I did nothing wrong. Let him bring it to me in writing. With what right can he say that he cannot take cases for a year? He will explain with which article of law he banned me? I will not leave here. This is an unlawful practice. He has a very valuable Bailiff. He evacuated the hall before the judge made a decision. How can he do this? I objected to this. Tension rose that day. We went out in tension in the IMM case or have I been banned since then? This is not his farm."

While the second statement was coming from the clerk, it was reported that the court panel asked the people who were banned from the hearing to leave the courtroom, otherwise the hearing would not be held.

Thereupon, Özçağdaş left the hall saying, "I am waiting for you all to the Family Solidarity Network meeting at noon."

"IF A MEP IS BANNED FROM A CASE..."

Before leaving the hall, Suat Özçağdaş addressed the audience:

"What we are experiencing here is complete unlawfulness. What we experienced in the past few days was that I reacted to the bailiff wanting to take the families out of the courtroom even though he had no authority, and the presiding judge insulted me and said 'take him out too'. If CMK 203 is applied, that decision is binding only on that day. If a member of parliament is banned from a case, which cannot be banned, no law can arise from this case. Let me tell you why I am leaving the courtroom because of my love and respect for the families."