A Turkish court on Thursday ordered the release of Sinem Dedetaş, the suspended opposition mayor of İstanbul’s Üsküdar district, to house arrest after 90 days in pretrial detention on corruption charges, her lawyer announced.
Dedetaş was subsequently released from prison, according to her lawyer.
The decision came on October 29, Turkey’s Republic Day, hours after Dedetaş said she was marking the national holiday alone in a prison cell for the first time.
Dedetaş, a member of the main opposition New Party, was arrested on July 31 on charges of bribery, extortion through abuse of office and establishing and leading a criminal organization in connection with construction and occupancy permits issued by the municipality.
Her lawyer, Akın Atalay, announced the decision on X, saying a court had accepted a request for her release under judicial supervision in the form of house arrest.
In a subsequent post on X, Atalay confirmed that Dedetaş had left prison, saying he and others had picked her up.
“May the other unjustly detained people also be released,” he added.
The decision ends her pretrial imprisonment but does not terminate the criminal investigation or lift her suspension from office.
Dedetaş, 45, was detained on July 29 along with five others in an investigation launched by the İstanbul Anatolian Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office. She and three other suspects were jailed pending trial two days later. The Interior Ministry suspended her from office on August 1.
The municipality has denied systemic wrongdoing and urged the public to respect the presumption of innocence.
Earlier Thursday Dedetaş said in a Republic Day message that she had been deprived of her freedom for 90 days and was spending the anniversary alone in a cell.
The message, marking the 103rd anniversary of the founding of the Turkish Republic, included the words, “How precious freedom is!”
Her release order follows a political struggle over control of Üsküdar, a traditionally conservative district on İstanbul’s Asian side that includes President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s private residence.
Dedetaş became the district’s first female mayor in the March 2024 local elections, winning 49.9 percent of the vote as a candidate of the Republican People’s Party (CHP) and ending three decades of uninterrupted rule by Islamist-rooted parties.
Following her arrest and suspension, the city council initially elected opposition council member Sibel Tan Çetinkaya as acting mayor on August 5. However, an administrative court suspended the decision after a challenge by Erdoğan’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP).
The AKP subsequently regained control of the municipality in a September 8 council vote, when its candidate, Dündar Ziya Gültekin, defeated Çetinkaya by 23 votes to 19.
Gültekin died on October 15 following a traffic accident in the northwestern province of Düzce. Five days later, the city council elected another AKP member, Muhammed Emin Sarıoğlu, as acting mayor in a vote boycotted by the CHP and the New Party. Sarıoğlu was the sole candidate.
The municipality therefore remains under AKP control despite Dedetaş’s release from prison.
Opposition politicians accused the government of using judicial pressure to reverse the result of the 2024 election, allegations the government denies.
European Parliament rapporteur on Turkey Nacho Sánchez Amor described the AKP takeover as a “blatant power grab,” criticizing the use of judicial and administrative measures to change the municipality’s political leadership.
Dedetaş was elected as a CHP candidate but later joined the New Party, established in July by former CHP leader Özgür Özel and his allies after a court annulled the party congress that elected him chairman and reinstated former leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu.
Her arrest was part of a series of criminal investigations targeting opposition-run municipalities following the CHP’s victory over the AKP in the March 2024 local elections.
The investigations have led to the detention, arrest or suspension of numerous opposition mayors, most prominently İstanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, widely regarded as Erdoğan’s strongest political rival, who has been jailed since March 2025.
Opposition leaders say the investigations are politically motivated and intended to weaken Erdoğan’s rivals and reverse opposition gains at the ballot box. The government rejects the allegations and claims that Turkey’s judiciary operates independently.
This article is republished from Turkish Minute.
