He explained it by saying 'Everything that happened to us is because of this': Murat Ağırel wrote why he was detained! 'Whoever touches that file gets burned'

Journalists Murat Ağırel and Timur Soykan were detained on the morning of April 11 on charges of "threats" and "blackmail." The detention took place as part of a "money laundering" investigation in which Erkan Kork, the imprisoned owner of Flash Haber TV, was also among the suspects.

Acting upon the complaints of certain individuals mentioned in the investigation, the Istanbul Police detained Ağırel and Soykan. The two journalists were referred to the Istanbul 4th Criminal Judgeship of Peace with a request for their arrest; however, the court decided to release them with a travel ban and a requirement to sign in twice a week.

STRIKING STATEMENTS FROM AĞIREL

Writing in the Cumhuriyet newspaper after his release in an article titled "Does whoever touches the İmamoğlu file get burned?", Murat Ağırel claimed that the reason for his detention was his reporting on a file concerning Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu.

Ağırel stated, "Police showed up at our door after our reports regarding the investigation file that led to the arrest of Ekrem İmamoğlu."

Describing the meeting that was the subject of the investigation and his experiences, Ağırel wrote:

"I stand by every line I have written. I write about events that cause moral decay, such as drugs, illegal betting, and corruption that poison society, and I will continue to write.

So, was what Timur Soykan and I experienced only related to the complaint of an imprisoned illegal betting suspect? You know it wasn't.

If you recall, shortly before we were detained, we founded the Onlar TV YouTube channel together with Şule Aydın, Barış Pehlivan, and Timur Soykan, with whom we hosted the 'Kayda Geçsin' program on Halk TV. Barış Terkoğlu, who left Halk TV to give us strong support, also took part in the founding staff of Onlar TV.

Before we even aired our first program, or even published a single video, we reached nearly 500 thousand subscribers. Currently, our subscriber count has exceeded 600 thousand. Look, there are plenty of sports, politics, current affairs, and documentary channels that cannot reach these numbers on YouTube despite broadcasting for years.

Our first live broadcast exceeded 1 million views in just 3-4 hours. It has now reached 1.5 million.

In short, our documented reports on the İmamoğlu investigation in this broadcast had an explosive effect on the agenda.

'WE CHOSE TO SAY THE EMPEROR HAS NO CLOTHES'

We showed that the 560 billion TL figure claimed by the pro-government media did not exist, that the 100 million dollars allegedly transferred to the PKK terrorist organization did not exist, that there were major contradictions in the case file, that the allegations were very weak, and that the matters described as bribery were much smaller and simpler commercial transactions than imagined.

Why did we do this? If we had supported the case like other names and become partners in the slander, nothing might have happened to us. On the contrary, we would have lived like kings.

But we chose to say 'the emperor has no clothes'.

İMAMOĞLU INVESTIGATION DETAIL

We defended the truth on behalf of the public's right to information, public interest, and democracy, regarding a person for whom millions of citizens went and voted, saying 'Let him be my mayor.'

Even a clip of the video where I talked about the İmamoğlu investigation on Onlar TV was watched millions of times on its own.

This is exactly why everything happened to us. When what we said about the investigation made a big splash, the police showed up at our door in the morning. We are so clean that they couldn't find anything to accuse us of.

In the series of articles I prepared, my calling the person at the center of the allegations to grant them the right of reply—one of the most fundamental rules of journalism—was caught in the wiretap because this person was already under surveillance.

I explain the subject to the person and state that I want to record it; they also record it, and I say I have questions. Then they invite me to the holding building, but I refuse as a matter of principle and invite them to the newspaper. Finally, we meet in a public tea garden on the condition that we record it in the presence of a journalist colleague of ours.

Look, the meeting is on record. The police also followed and recorded it. This person was subjected to an operation on the grounds of illegal betting and was arrested. The prosecutor said, 'Let's call Murat and Timur and ask what this conversation is about.' We were invited to give a statement and an appointment was given. On the morning of the appointment date, the police raided our homes.

What is the reason? We allegedly blackmailed this person by asking, 'How did you buy Flash TV!' If you believe that... The entire conversation is on record. On the day we were to give our statement, this person connected from prison via SEGBIS and gave this testimony, adding to their complaint. They claimed that Ekrem İmamoğlu and Murat Ongun organized and tried to get Cafer Mahiroğlu to buy Flash TV, and we tried to prevent it!

Look, Erkan Kork tried to make the meeting we had 2 months after he bought Flash TV accepted as such and tried to set up a new conspiracy with slander.

That is why we were detained and referred for arrest without a single piece of evidence. We played the authorized audio recordings that served as evidence to the court, and we were the ones who presented the evidence to the file. It seems Erkan Kork has clung to the now-fashionable Ekrem İmamoğlu argument to get out of prison."