The Mayor of Istanbul and opponent of state chief Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Ekrem İmamoğlu, has to be custody. A Turkish court ordered this, as the state news agency Anadolu reported. The Istanbul public prosecutor had previously requested custody.
The CHP politician is blamed in two separate procedures related to terrorism and corruption. According to Anadolu, custody was requested in both cases. Specifically, the corruption investigation is about suspicion of membership in a criminal association, extortion, bribery, fraud and manipulation of tender. The terrorist investigation is about accusation of supporting the forbidden Kurdish Workers’ Party PKK.
İmamoğlu condemned the investigation against him on the platform X and turned to his attachments: “I call my people. With your support, we will first thwart this coup, and then we will continue to send those who let us experience this.”
In Turkey, after the arrest of the Istanbul Mayor, people took the street for the fourth time in a row to protest. In Istanbul, Ankara, Izmir and other Turkish cities, demonstration marches started in the evening, as local media and observers reported. Thousands of participants could be seen on pictures of the Anka news agency from a meeting in Istanbul.
The use of pepper spray against demonstrators was again reported from Istanbul and Ankara. Protest from various parts of the country had also been reported during the day. Already in the night of Saturday, thousands demonstrated in more than a dozen cities. According to the Turkish Ministry of the Interior, 343 people were arrested. The ministry said that they want to prevent a “disruption of public order”. “Chaos and provocations” would not be tolerated.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan warned İmamoğlus supporters of rallies on the weekend. That was “street terror,” said the 71-year-old on Friday that he would not accept that. “Just as we have never given in terrorism, we will not give way to vandalism.” With a view to the allegations raised against İmamoğlu, he said: “It is deeply irresponsible to refer to the street to defend theft, looting, illegality and fraud instead of going to court.”
Turkish media supervision threatens channels with “untrue reporting” with punishments
The Republican People’s Party (CHP) called up to the large races from İmamoğlu. In a speech, CHP chairman Özgur Özel said on Friday that around 300,000 people had gathered in Istanbul. During his speech, the police started pepper spray and water cannons to drive the crowd apart.
The Turkish media supervision threatened the media in the country in the event of “untrue reporting” with punishments and license withdrawal. “We are again asking the media not to rely on party and untrue reporting, but only to publish official information and explanations from the competent authorities,” wrote the head of the institution, Ebubekir Sahin, on the X. He spoke of a “last reminder”. According to reports, some broadcasters hired their live reporting from demonstrations in the country.
İmamoğlu was supposed to be the challenger of Erdoğan’s challenger in the upcoming presidential election this weekend; He is the most important political rival and lies in some surveys in front of him. The CHP calls the arrest politically motivated. The news agency Reuters reported that he had viewed court files, according to which İmamoğlu, rejects the allegations of corruption.
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