A protester holds a flare subsequent to riot law enforcement officials throughout a protest towards the arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, in Istanbul, Turkey, Saturday, March 22, 2025.
Khalil Hamra/AP
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Khalil Hamra/AP
ISTANBUL — A court docket formally arrested the mayor of Istanbul and key rival to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Sunday and ordered him jailed pending the result of a trial on corruption costs.
Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu was detained following a raid on his residence earlier this week, sparking the most important wave of road demonstrations in Turkey in additional than a decade. It additionally deepened issues over democracy and rule of regulation in Turkey.
His imprisonment is extensively thought to be a political transfer to take away a serious contender from the subsequent presidential race, at the moment scheduled for 2028.
Authorities officers reject accusations that authorized actions towards opposition figures are politically motivated and demand that Turkey’s courts function independently.
The formal arrest got here as his opposition Republican Individuals’s Social gathering, or CHP, started holding a main presidential election to endorse Imamoglu as its presidential candidate regardless of the arrest.
The social gathering has additionally arrange symbolic poll bins nationwide — referred to as “solidarity boxes” — to permit people who find themselves not social gathering members to precise their help to the mayor.
“Honestly, we are embarrassed in the name of our legal system,” Ankara Mayor Mansur Yavas, a fellow member of Imamoglu’s CHP, informed reporters, criticizing the shortage of confidentiality within the proceedings.
“We learned from television pundits about the allegations that even lawyers did not have access to, showing how politically motivated this whole ordeal has been,” he stated.
A person attaches a big banner of Istanbul’s Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu in a tree in Istanbul, Turkey, Thursday, March 20, 2025, throughout a protest towards the arrest of Imamoglu.
Emrah Gurel/AP
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Emrah Gurel/AP
The Council of Europe, a Europe-wide physique that focuses on selling human rights and democracy slammed the choice to imprison the mayor.
“We deplore the decision to place Mayor of Istanbul Ekrem Imamoglu in detention, and demand his immediate release,” stated Marc Cools who heads the grouping’s congress of native authorities.
Soner Cagaptay, director of the Turkish Analysis Program on the Washington Institute for Close to East Coverage and an writer of a biography of Erdogan, stated with Imamoglu’s arrest, Erdogan was taking an excessive measure towards his key opponent.
“Erdogan is determined to do whatever it takes to end Imamoglu’s career,” he stated. “(Imamoglu) beats Erdogan in every imaginable presidential poll.”
Cagaptay stated the worldwide atmosphere — the place the European Union seems eager to keep up Turkey’s favor amid safety threats from Russia, and the US is unconcerned by different international locations’ inner affairs — permits Erdogan to proceed with out concern of worldwide scrutiny.
The EU is compliant and the US is dealing with inwards,” Cagaptay said.
Before his detention, Imamoglu had already faced multiple criminal cases that could result in prison sentences and a political ban. He was also appealing a 2022 conviction for insulting members of Turkey’s Supreme Electoral Council.
Riot police use pepper spray to clear a protester throughout a protest towards the arrest of Istanbul’s Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, in Istanbul, Turkey, Saturday, March 22, 2025.
Francisco Seco/AP
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Francisco Seco/AP
Earlier within the week, a college nullified his diploma, citing alleged irregularities in his switch from a personal college in northern Cyprus some 30 years in the past. The choice successfully bars him from working for president, for the reason that place requires candidates to be college graduates. Imamoglu had vowed to problem the choice.
Imamoglu was elected mayor of Turkey’s largest metropolis in March 2019, in a serious blow to Erdogan and the president’s Justice and Growth Social gathering, which had managed Istanbul for a quarter-century. Erdogan’s social gathering pushed to void the municipal election leads to town of 16 million, alleging irregularities.
The problem resulted in a repeat of the election just a few months later, which Imamoglu additionally gained.
The mayor retained his seat following native elections final 12 months, throughout which the CHP made important good points towards Erdogan’s governing social gathering.
