Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, Erdogan's rival, sentenced to 20 months in prison
On Wednesday, July 16, Ekrem Imamoglu, mayor of Turkey's largest city, was sentenced to twenty months in prison for insulting and intimidating a prosecutor. A leading opponent of President Erdogan, he had previously been convicted of corruption and has been detained since March.
The news was revealed during the day by Turkish media, and then bounced around the world on news sites. “A Turkish criminal court sentenced Ekrem Imamoglu, mayor of Istanbul and main rival of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, to one year and eight months in prison for insulting and threatening Istanbul’s chief prosecutor, Akin Gürlek,” reports the European news site Politico . The mayor had accused Gurlek of attacking members of the opposition for political reasons, thus calling into question his “neutrality.”
Imamoglu, 55, has been a key figure in Turkish politics in recent years. In addition to his role as mayor of the country's largest city, he was widely expected to be the next presidential candidate for the Republican People's Party (CHP, Kemalist, secular, and nationalist), the main opposition force to Erdogan's AKP, in the 2028 presidential election.
This was before the man was arrested in March of this year , accused of fraud and corruption. “Following this arrest,” contextualizes Il Post Since Italy, Turkey has seen numerous demonstrations against the government, leading to clashes between protesters and police and more than a thousand arrests.”
Now, with this new ruling, Imamoglu's case appears to be worsening, even though the Istanbul mayor vehemently denies the charges against him and has already appealed his previous corruption conviction. He is expected to do the same for this one.
Courrier International
