13.11.2026 22:40
The Silivri Chief Public Prosecutor's Office has launched an investigation into Ekrem İmamoğlu, who said at the hearing in the İBB case, "I will try those who prepared the indictment." In his statement given via SEGBİS, detained İmamoğlu said that he used his words metaphorically and that he was referring to the process by which the then Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor and the current Minister of Justice conducted the investigation; he stated that he had no personal intent against the panel of judges.
Ekrem İmamoğlu's statement given within the scope of the investigation initiated due to his words at the hearing in the 'corruption' case against İBB has been revealed.
An investigation was initiated by the Silivri Chief Public Prosecutor's Office over the words used by Ekrem İmamoğlu in the 'corruption' case against İBB. Within the scope of the investigation, İmamoğlu, who is detained, gave his statement via the Audio and Visual Information Systems (SEGBİS).
'I AM USING IT IN A FIGURATIVE SENSE'
İmamoğlu said in his statement, "My political statements and criticisms, which contain no praise of violence and no call to violence, are being made the subject of investigations and cases. Frankly, in every new investigation I see that our prosecutors are advancing the work even further. They constantly try to extract a crime from my words. The subject of this investigation is unbelievable; because they characterize one of the most important things in the world, a legal concept found in constitutions and international conventions, as a word of 'threat.' My words before my interrogation, which was not conducted by the Istanbul 33rd High Criminal Court on grounds contrary to the truth and the law—'I will not make a defense, I will judge, I will judge, don't worry, I will judge those who prepare the indictment'—are allegedly the crime of threat. I am not a judge. Nor am I in a position to establish a court and conduct a trial. Obviously, I am using it in a figurative sense. What my intent is is very clear. I tell the truths I know. I criticize the so-called indictment prepared against me. I criticize those who filed this case against me."
'HOW CAN THE ACT OF JUDGING BE CONSIDERED A THREAT?'
İmamoğlu said, "Is this a threat? If prosecutors and judges accept this as a threat, that is their problem, not mine. This means they do not trust the judicial activity they carry out. I think a prosecutor or a judge who trusts themselves would not fear the word 'judging.' Whether in its literal or figurative sense, how can the act of 'judging' be accepted as a threat? How, under what conditions, can the act of judging be considered a threat? Are judges and courts in Turkey committing the crime of threat by conducting trials? Moreover, to judge an indictment, to stand against it in substance, and, in my view, to respond to and question the greatest unlawful processes of history that I have faced is my most natural right. I do all this before the judges who will decide, and should decide, on behalf of the nation. What about this is a crime or a threat? This investigation that has been opened is an attempt to impute a crime to a concept that has no meaning of insult, threat, or similar crime in our Turkish."
'I MEANT THE PROCESS OF THE PERSON WHO IS THE MINISTER OF JUSTICE'
When İmamoğlu was asked the question, "What did you mean when you said, 'I will not make a defense, I will judge, I will judge, don't worry, I will judge those who prepared the indictment'; who or whom did you mean?", İmamoğlu said, "When I said 'I will judge,' I meant in a figurative sense that the indictment written is wrong and full of lies and slanders. Since I have no duty to judge, it is impossible for me to judge. With these words, I meant the process and practices of conducting the investigation by the person who was then the Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor and is now the Minister of Justice. I have no personal intent toward those who wrote the indictment or the court panel. Moreover, it is not possible for the court panel to be understood by those who prepared the indictment as a job definition."