Dozens of people, including journalists, appeared before a court in Istanbul on Friday, accused of attending banned demonstrations and disobeying police orders to disperse during anti-government protests that were triggered by the jailing of the city’s opposition mayor,

Trials started in İstanbul for 189 people, including students, journalists and lawyers, for their involvement in protests in March against the Turkish government spurred on by the arrest of the city's mayor.

Turkey started hastily organized mass trials on Friday to prosecute some of the hundreds of people who took part in the widespread demonstrations over the jailing of Istanbul’s mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, the major rival to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.