{"id":139863,"date":"2026-08-03T18:34:37","date_gmt":"2026-08-03T18:34:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/139863\/"},"modified":"2026-08-03T18:34:37","modified_gmt":"2026-08-03T18:34:37","slug":"turkey-blocks-access-to-website-covering-defense-in-imamoglu-trial","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/139863\/","title":{"rendered":"Turkey blocks access to website covering defense in \u0130mamo\u011flu trial"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>            <a href=\"https:\/\/stockholmcf.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Istanbul-Yargiliyor-block.jpg\" data-caption=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"696\" height=\"392\" class=\"entry-thumb td-modal-image\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns=\" http:=\"\" data-lazy- data-lazy- alt=\"\" title=\"\" data-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Istanbul-Yargiliyor-block-696x392.jpg\"\/><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"696\" height=\"392\" class=\"entry-thumb td-modal-image\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Istanbul-Yargiliyor-block-696x392.jpg\"   alt=\"\" title=\"\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A Turkish court on Friday blocked access to a website reporting defense arguments and courtroom developments in the trial of jailed \u0130stanbul Mayor Ekrem \u0130mamo\u011flu, citing national security and public order concerns, the Freedom of Expression Association (\u0130F\u00d6D) <a href=\"https:\/\/ifade.org.tr\/engelliweb\/istanbul-yargiliyor-platformu\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">reported<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The \u0130stanbul 8th Criminal Magistrate of Peace blocked access to the \u201c\u0130stanbul Yarg\u0131l\u0131yor\u201d (\u0130stanbul Prosecutes) domain name. The platform publishes defendants\u2019 testimony, defense submissions and updates from hearings in the \u0130stanbul Metropolitan Municipality case.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u0130mamo\u011flu, widely seen as President Recep Tayyip Erdo\u011fan\u2019s strongest political rival, was <a href=\"https:\/\/stockholmcf.org\/turkish-court-arrests-istanbul-mayor-in-graft-probe-amid-protests\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">arrested<\/a> in March 2025 on corruption charges that critics say are politically motivated and intended to sideline him ahead of the 2028 presidential election.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">He is standing trial with more than 400 defendants on charges including establishing a criminal organization, bribery, bid rigging, fraud and money laundering. \u0130mamo\u011flu denies the charges.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The platform\u2019s Instagram account had already been blocked by a court on April 10 and was subsequently withheld in Turkey by Instagram.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Authorities had also blocked the website and X account of \u201c\u0130stanbul \u0130ddianamesi\u201d (\u0130stanbul Indictment), another platform publishing documents concerning the prosecution. Its domain was blocked in November 2025 on the same national security and public order grounds, and X subsequently withheld its account in Turkey.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The investigations into the \u0130stanbul Metropolitan Municipality are widely seen by critics as part of growing pressure on the main opposition Republican People\u2019s Party (CHP).<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights Michael O\u2019Flaherty <a href=\"https:\/\/stockholmcf.org\/council-of-europe-rights-chief-raises-grave-fair-trial-concerns-in-imamoglu-trial\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">said<\/a> in July that the proceedings raised \u201cgrave issues\u201d concerning the right to a fair trial, including the equality of arms between the prosecution and defense.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">International human rights groups have also <a href=\"https:\/\/stockholmcf.org\/hrw-urges-turkey-to-lift-courtroom-restrictions-in-imamoglu-trial\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">criticized<\/a> restrictions on access to the trial for lawyers, journalists and members of the public, saying they undermine the principle of open justice.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">More broadly, rights advocates have raised concerns about Turkish courts\u2019 frequent use of broadly worded national security and public order grounds to restrict news outlets, journalists and opposition figures, saying sweeping bans violate freedom of expression and the public\u2019s right to access information.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Online censorship in the country has expanded sharply in recent years. According to \u0130F\u00d6D\u2019s EngelliWeb, authorities <a href=\"https:\/\/stockholmcf.org\/turkey-blocked-232000-websites-in-2025-as-digital-censorship-expanded-report\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">blocked<\/a> more than 232,000 websites and domain names in 2025, bringing the total number restricted since 2018 to more than 1.5 million.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Turkish court on Friday blocked access to a website reporting defense arguments and courtroom developments in the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":139864,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[83],"tags":[2031,425,312,1181,67210,67211,9711,429,430,131,132,155,66567],"class_list":["post-139863","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-stockholm","tag-crackdown-on-opposition","tag-democracy","tag-human-rights","tag-istanbul-mayor-ekrem-imamoglu","tag-istanbul-prosecutes","tag-istanbul-yargiliyor","tag-online-censorship","tag-oppression","tag-republican-peoples-party-chp","tag-stockholm","tag-sweden","tag-turkey","tag-website-blocking"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@dk\/117033020131849466","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139863","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=139863"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139863\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/139864"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=139863"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=139863"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=139863"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}