The former president of a top-division soccer team in Turkiye told a court on Tuesday that he regretted attacking a referee at the end of a league game but denied threatening to kill him.
Faruk Koca, who resigned as president of MKE Ankaragucu after punching referee Halil Umut Meler, has been charged with causing wilful injury to a public official, threatening an official and violating a law relating to the prevention of violence in sports.
He faces up to 13 years in prison if found guilty.
Koca attacked Meler on Dec. 11 after a 1-1 draw between Ankaragucu and Caykur Rizespor. The referee, who was also kicked by two other people while lying on the ground, was hospitalized with a minor fracture close to his eye.
Meler has also accused Koca of threatening to kill him during the attack.
Koca was arrested but has since been released on bail. He appeared in court with three other defendants who were also charged.
"The part about the threat is not true," the state-run Anadolu Agency quoted Koca as telling the court during the opening hearing. "It was the first time in my life that I engaged in a physical intervention against anyone. I am sorry.
"I have already expressed my regrets to the public. I present my regrets once again in court."
Trial was adjourned until Feb. 28.
The attack against Meler caused a public furore and prompted the Turkish Football Federation to suspend all league games for a week.
Koca was imposed a permanent ban from soccer while Ankaragucu was fined 2 million lira ($69,000) and has been forced to play five home games without fans.
The FBI has released a new image of Ryan James Wedding, the Canadian ex-Olympian allegedly behind a deadly international drug ring.
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'Toronto, Welcome to the Eras Tour!' Taylor Swift told a roaring sold-out crowd at the Rogers Centre on Thursday night as she began the Canadian leg of her record-breaking tour.
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The 'Roaring Lion' will return to the walls of Ottawa's Fairmont Château Laurier today, nearly three years after the historic portrait of Sir Winston Churchill was stolen.
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The City of Longueuil has partially lifted the confinement measure currently in effect around the site of a CN train derailment near Jacques-Cartier West Boulevard and Saint-Georges Street after the incident spilt an unknown quantity of hydrogen peroxide Thursday morning.
Biden administration officials are working against the clock doling out billions in grants and taking other steps to try to preserve at least some of the outgoing president's legacy before U.S. president-elect Donald Trump takes office in January.
North Korea tested exploding drones designed to crash into targets and leader Kim Jong Un called for accelerating mass production of the weapons, state media said Friday.
At least 10 people died and others were injured in a blaze at a nursing home near Zaragoza in northeastern Spain, before firefighters managed to extinguish the flames, local authorities said Friday.
The manager of a small hotel in northern Italy refused a reservation made by an Israeli couple, accusing Israeli people of being 'responsible for genocide,' a Jewish organization in Venice reported on Thursday.
Two lawyers say they can no longer represent Rudy Giuliani in a legal fight over property he's been ordered to give up to satisfy part of a $148 million defamation judgment against him.
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Hallmark Canada has recalled a Star Wars-themed Christmas ornament after mould was found on several of the products.
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The lawyer for a former cast member of the 'Real Housewives of New York' told a federal judge Thursday that the First Amendment cannot shield the show’s creators from a lawsuit alleging that the show’s participants were subjected to a “rotted workplace culture.”
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Scotiabank users say they are having issues using their bank’s services following a scheduled maintenance period that ended days ago.
European Union regulators issued their first antitrust fine to Facebook parent Meta on Thursday with a penalty of nearly 800 million euros for what they call 'abusive practices' involving its Marketplace online classified ads business.
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The Australian government's plan to ban children from social media to protect them from harm has won almost universal political support, but keeping them off social media looks far more difficult in practical terms.
The California Insurance Department said four Los Angeles residents were arrested Wednesday, accused of defrauding three insurance companies out of nearly $142,000 by claiming a bear had caused damage to their vehicles.
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Canada Post workers are on strike after failing to reach a negotiated agreement with their employer. The Canadian Union of Postal Workers says approximately 55,000 workers are striking.
Canada Post workers are on strike after failing to reach a negotiated agreement with their employer.
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Canada Post workers are on strike after failing to reach a negotiated agreement with their employer. The Canadian Union of Postal Workers says approximately 55,000 workers are striking.
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Canada Post workers are on strike after failing to reach a negotiated agreement with their employer. The Canadian Union of Postal Workers says approximately 55,000 workers are striking.
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Two people have been charged after Saskatchewan RCMP seized 31 guns from a residence in Lafleche and a rural yard site south of the town.
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The wait is finally over for thousands of Taylor Swift fans. The superstar kicked off the Toronto leg of her Eras tour on Thursday. We checked in with concert-goers in Waterloo Region and Guelph.
The long-time home of CTV News Kitchener is now nothing more than a memory.
Here are the headliners for the 2025 Country Thunder Saskatchewan music festival in the Craven Valley.
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Cynthia Block is the 29th mayor of Saskatoon, and the first woman elected to the position in the city's history.
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Canada Post workers are on strike after failing to reach a negotiated agreement with their employer. The Canadian Union of Postal Workers says approximately 55,000 workers are striking.
It is the final stage in a long fight - Tyler Jollymore and his mother Michele are among dozens of tenants who received N12 and N13 eviction notices almost two years ago.
Canada Post workers are on strike after failing to reach a negotiated agreement with their employer. The Canadian Union of Postal Workers says approximately 55,000 workers are striking.
A permanent location for young people in London experiencing homelessness to access services is officially opening it’s doors on Monday.
A head-on collision took the life a driver Thursday night.
Police are asking for the public's help locating a missing teenager.
Nick Vassilodimitrakis appeared in a Barrie courtroom Thursday morning representing himself by video from a detention centre in London, Ont. where he pleaded guilty to stabbing veteran Barrie police officer Jim Peters.
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Canada Post workers are on strike after failing to reach a negotiated agreement with their employer. The Canadian Union of Postal Workers says approximately 55,000 workers are striking.
A once in a lifetime celebration for Windsor Ont.'s newest member of the Centenarian Club took place on Thursday.
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The emergency department at South Okanagan General Hospital in Oliver, B.C., will be closed for 31 hours this weekend, the second such closure in a week and the third since the start of November.
With Christmas fast approaching, MyCityCare's annual Shop of Wonders officially opened for the season Thursday.
Lethbridge business owners and organizations are being reminded the deadline for the annual waste diversion report is just around the corner.
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A fire has closed a shelter for women and families fleeing abuse in Batchewana First Nation, just outside of Sault Ste. Marie.
A 72-year-old from Blind River has been charged with multiple counts of sexual assault involving a victim under the age of 16.
Police in Newfoundland say a man was electrocuted Saturday by a downed power wire about 10 kilometres north of St. John's, N.L.
On Thursday morning, Dave Penny officially ended a suggested hundred-day isolation period that followed his diagnosis and stem cell treatment for non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma. On Thursday night, Penny returned to a stage at a downtown St. John's bar, regaling a small crowd with songs and stories with a distinctive Newfoundland flair.
A Memorial University scientist says the mysterious white blobs washing up on Newfoundland beaches are actually gobs of plastic -- and they need to be cleaned up.
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