Eleven people who were ordered to be released on Thursday in an investigation targeting the İstanbul Metropolitan Municipality were taken back into custody as they were leaving the prison following an objection to their release, Turkish Minute reported, citing the Anka news agency.
Nineteen of 21 detainees in the case, except for two drivers for jailed İstanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, had been granted release following a review of their detention by an İstanbul court.
According to main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) parliamentary group deputy chair Gökhan Günaydın, 11 of the 19 were re-arrested roughly five hours after prosecutors objected to the court’s initial ruling.
Those taken back into custody have not been charged with any crime and they are not listed as suspects in an indictment unveiled last month as part of a probe into the İstanbul Municipality.
They have kept in jail for months.
İmamoğlu, the main political rival of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, and dozens of city officials were arrested in March as part of an investigation into the municipality.
In the indictment prosecutors accuse the popular mayor of leading a vast criminal network and committing 142 offenses that include running a criminal organization, bribery, embezzlement, money laundering, extortion and bid rigging.
Günaydın condemned the court’s decision to re-arrest the suspects in a post on X on Friday, saying it shows that the process has “no connection to law or justice.”
He said the suspects had spent months in jail despite having no formal charges filed and no indictment submitted to the court.
“This is a blatant violation of personal liberty and security,” he noted, adding that the situation was not only devastating for the detainees and their families but also “deeply troubling for Turkey.”
The CHP has condemned the case as “purely political,” saying it aims to eliminate Erdoğan’s strongest challenger ahead of the next presidential election scheduled for 2028.
İmamoğlu, who was already named the CHP’s presidential candidate on March 23, the day he was put in pretrial detention, has “strongly denied all accusations” in statements to police and prosecutors.
İmamoğlu’s arrest in March sparked nationwide outrage and mass demonstrations, marking Turkey’s most intense street protests since the 2013 Gezi Park movement.
