Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, the biggest rival of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has made his first court appearance on Friday since he was arrested and held in a high-security prison last month.
İmamoğlu is being held on corruption and terrorism charges, but he appeared before a special court at Silivri Prison on Friday in a separate case, accused of trying to intimidate Istanbul’s chief prosecutor.
Opposition condemns İmamoğlu’s arrest
Turkey’s opposition condemned İmamoğlu’s arrest as “a coup attempt against our next president” and his detention sparked the biggest anti-Erdogan protests in more than a decade.
İmamoğlu told the court:
“I am here because I won elections three times in Istanbul. I am here under arrest because I won against the notion of Whoever wins Istanbul, wins Turkey.”
İmamoğlu was referring to President Erdogan, who began his political career as mayor of Turkey’s largest city and has often used the phrase since.
Crowds gathered outside the complex in support of Istanbul’s mayor, whose detention is seen by many as politically motivated. The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe called on the Turkish authorities to drop the charges against him and release him immediately.
However, the Turkish government has rejected claims of political interference, insisting on the independence of the judiciary.
The 53-year-old mayor faces two hearings on Friday that carry the potential for both jail time and a ban on political participation. The first case, concerning threats against Istanbul Chief Prosecutor Akin Gurlek following the arrest of the district mayor, has been postponed until June.
Gurlek, a former deputy justice minister under Erdogan, has been accused by the opposition of acting as the president’s “mobile guillotine” against his opponents in Istanbul.
None of the cases on Friday related to his arrest on March 19 on suspicion of running a criminal organisation and extortion, but prosecutors are seeking a jail term of up to seven years and four months in the Gurlek case.
Turks come out to protest in support of İmamoğlu
Courts in Istanbul have released on bail 127 participants in protests organised after the İmamoğlu’s detention.
Istanbul Mayor İmamoğlu, considered Erdogan’s main rival in the upcoming elections, was detained on March 19. He is accused of corruption and terrorism. Following İmamoğlu’s detention, the Istanbul mayor’s office suspended the right to demonstrate in the city until March 23 “in order to maintain public order.” Some metro stations and roads in the centre of Istanbul were closed and access to some internet resources was restricted. The ban was then extended and an arrest decision was made against İmamoğlu.
Protests in major cities continued despite the ban, detentions and use of force against protesters.
The news of İmamoğlu’s detention also had a negative impact on the national currency. If in the morning of March 19, the Turkish lira was worth 36.7 per dollar, at its peak it was already 41 lira per dollar. In addition, in the morning, the Istanbul Stock Exchange temporarily suspended trading after a sharp drop in the index by almost 7 per cent.
İmamoğlu’s arrest came a day after Istanbul University cancelled his diploma at the request of the attorney general, preventing him from running for president. According to the constitution, only a person with a completed university degree can be president in Turkey. This was based on possible irregularities related to İmamoğlu’s transfer from a university in Northern Cyprus to Istanbul in the late 1980s, as Ankara did not recognise the territory’s educational institutions at the time.
