AP
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On Wednesday, a Turkish court, the chief rival of Istanbul’s imprisoned opposition mayor and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, humiliated and threatened civil servants and sentenced them to one year and eight months in prison.
Mayor Ekrem Imamoguru, who has been held in prisons west of Istanbul since March 23, is expected to appeal the verdict, which is part of several ongoing legal proceedings against him.
The case, which preceded his arrest, comes from comments he made on January 20, where he criticized Istanbul’s chief prosecutor Akin Gurlek and accused him of targeting opposition figures through a politically motivated investigation.
A court on Wednesday found Imamoguru guilty of insulting and threatening Grek, but acquitted him of accusations of publicly identifying him with the intent to target him.
Imamogul is considered the main challenger of Erdogan’s two-year rule and has denied the charges.
The mayor was arrested along with other politicians from the major opposition parties as part of an investigation into alleged corruption. His arrest sparked the biggest street protest in Türkiye for over a decade.
Despite being behind the bar, he was officially appointed as the main opposition Republican People’s Party, or the presidential candidate for the CHP. The election is scheduled to take place in 2028, but it may come sooner.
Since Imamoguru’s arrest, dozens of officials from CHP-controlled municipalities have faced a wave of arrests as part of an investigation into bidding and bribery allegations.
The arrest drew widespread criticism from opposition leaders who argued that the charges were politically motivated. Imamoguru himself described the trial as “punishment, not justice,” and accused the judiciary of acting under government pressure.
The Erdogan government argues that the courts are fair and have no political involvement.
