A court issued a pretrial detention order this Sunday for Ekrem Imamoglu, the mayor of Istanbul and political rival of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who is being investigated for corruption and association with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which has been declared a terrorist organization by the Turkish government.
The formal arrest and pretrial detention order issued by the Istanbul court currently relates only to the corruption charges, as the terrorism charge is still pending evaluation.
Imamoglu was arrested last Wednesday and has been in custody since then, while outside the country, thousands of people have taken to the streets of major cities across the country to denounce the fact that the mayor of Istanbul, as he himself claims, has been the victim of political persecution orchestrated by President Erdogan, who has denied any wrongdoing and defended the independence of the judiciary.
The mayor spent much of the early morning testifying before the investigating judge, from 3:30 a.m. to 5:30 a.m. (Spanish and Balearic Islands time, two hours later in Turkey), according to the Turkish newspaper Birgun.
In the hours leading up to the hearing, he received a visit from his party chairman, Özgür Özel, who, before leaving the courtroom, had already predicted a possible formal arrest. Hours earlier, the mayor had complained to the Prosecutor’s Office that the accusations against him stem from secret witness statements that are “completely false, defamatory, fabricated, and represent an insult to dignity and honor.”
The arrest warrant for the mayor was finally issued at 8:06 a.m. (Spanish and Balearic Islands time), as both Imamoglu and his party leadership had anticipated. “He has prepared his family for the worst,” said Özel, leader of the Republican People’s Party (CHP), “but he hopes at least that this trial will spark a nationwide awakening.”
Regarding the corruption charges, one of the main crimes against the mayor is the creation of a criminal network to manipulate illegal bidding processes. Imamoglu denied this in a statement to the court on Friday, arguing that the position does not qualify him or allow him time to address this issue. He insisted that he is the victim of “judicial harassment” and “political intervention” given his success as mayor, according to the Hurriyet newspaper.
The mayor also defended himself in court against the accusations of collaborating with the PKK. The mayor has been accused of organizing an illegal “electoral collaboration” between the CHP and the pro-Kurdish People’s Equality and Democracy Party (DEM), closely linked to the PKK, in the local elections held in March last year.
The formal arrest warrant against Imamoglu coincides with the CHP’s presidential primaries, which are being held this Sunday and for which he is listed as a candidate. Here, Imamoglu faces another problem: on Tuesday, his alma mater, Istanbul University, revoked his diploma, citing alleged violations of Higher Education Board regulations.
This decision represents yet another blow to the political aspirations of Imamoglu, a major generational successor for the CHP ahead of the 2028 presidential elections because, by law, all candidates must have university degrees.
