Turkish prosecutors on Friday sought the arrest of 99 former and current municipal officials in the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) bastion of İzmir, including the city’s former mayor, Turkish Minute reported.
The arrest requests, on accusations of corruption, came after a similar operation in opposition-run İstanbul on March 19 that saw the arrest of its popular mayor, Ekrem İmamoğlu, the main political rival of Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
In İzmir, Turkey’s third-largest city, which the opposition has run for years, former mayor Tunç Soyer and Şenol Aslanoğlu, the CHP’s regional president, were among those referred for arrest on Friday.
The 99 suspects were among 119 people referred to court earlier in the day following a sweeping police operation on July 1. Prosecutors released one detainee without charges and requested judicial supervision measures for the remaining 19.
Twenty others had been released earlier by police.
The investigation, led by the İzmir Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office, centers on allegations of tender rigging, interfering with contract fulfillment and aggravated fraud. Authorities say the probe was based on findings from Court of Accounts audits, inspector reports and expert analyses. Detention warrants were issued for 157 people, with 137 taken into custody as of Friday.
The recent investigations into opposition municipalities come in the wake of the CHP’s sweeping victory in the March 2024 local elections in which the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) suffered its worst electoral defeat in two decades, losing control of key cities to the opposition.
Opposition leaders and rights groups have accused President Erdoğan and his government of using judicial pressure to suppress political rivals and roll back democratic gains made by opposition-held local governments.
