Istanbul Mayor İmamoğlu wins slander case against pro-gov't newspaper Yeni Şafak

Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu won a slander lawsuit against staunchly pro-government newspaper Yeni Şafak. The editor-in-chief of the paper had written opinion pieces dubbing then-mayoral candidate İmamoğlu 'a project' of U.S.-based Islamic cleric Fethullah Gülen.

Tuesday December 29 2020 03:21 pm

İbrahim Karagül (L) and Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu.

Duvar English

Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu has won a slander case against government-supporting newspaper Yeni Şafak after they called him "a project" of Fethullah Gülen, who is widely believed to have masterminded the July 15, 2016 failed coup attempt.

Before the re-run municipal elections in Istanbul, which İmamoğlu won, editor-in-chief İbrahim Karagül wrote several opinion pieces saying that he was a project of FETÖ, the name given to Gülen's network by Ankara that brands it a terrorist organization.

"He is a FETÖ candidate. He is a project of those who made FETÖ, a problem in Turkey. He is a project of those who executed our people on July 15," Karagül wrote on July 22, 2019, the day before the second round of elections.

Yeni Şafak will pay 5,000 Turkish liras in damages, while the columnist will pay 2,500 Turkish Liras to İmamoğlu.

Karagül recently announced that he would be leaving his post at the daily at the end of 2020.