Journo’s posts on Turkish companies’ trade with Israel restricted upon former PM’s requests

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An Istanbul court on Dec. 5 issued a restriction on journalist Metin Cihan's tweets regarding the company of former Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım's son, Erkam Yıldırım, and its ongoing shipments to Israel during the siege of Gaza.

The Yıldırım family filed a criminal complaint against the journalist, leading the court to rule in favor of removing the father's and son's names from the posts.

Previously, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his family has also filed a criminal complaint against Cihan after his post in which he stated, "While Erdoğan was condemning Israel's hospital bombing, his son Burak Erdoğan's company was loading cargo at an Israeli port.”

Following the second criminal complaint against him, Cihan reiterated that the information he had received had been obtained from publicly available sources. He underscored that the posts were not refuted as they were based on open sources.

Cihan on Dec. 7 reported that Turkish companies shipped four million tonnes of goods to Israel on 400 ships during its attacks on Gaza. Those companies included major ones belonging to the Koç and Sabancı holdings and those belonging to names from the ruling Justice and Development (AKP).

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