A Turkish court has jailed the opposition mayor of Ankara’s Çankaya district and 23 other people pending trial in a corruption investigation targeting the municipality, Turkish Minute reported.
Çankaya Mayor Hüseyin Can Güner, a member of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), faces charges of establishing a criminal organization, bribery and bid rigging.
Thirty suspects appeared before the Ankara 4th Criminal Court of Peace, which ordered the pretrial detention of 24 of them, including Güner.
The remaining six were released under judicial supervision and prohibited from leaving the country.
The Interior Ministry subsequently announced that Güner had been suspended from office.
The Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office had issued detention warrants for 36 people as part of the investigation, which includes allegations of forming or belonging to a criminal organization, giving or receiving bribes and rigging public tenders.
Güner was outside Turkey when the detention warrants were issued on July 11. He returned from northern Cyprus and was detained at Ankara’s Esenboğa Airport later that day.
In his testimony Güner denied the allegations and said prosecutors had not questioned him about bribery or establishing a criminal organization.
“I voluntarily returned from abroad and surrendered on July 11,” Güner was quoted by the Anka news agency as telling the court. “I believe that referring me for arrest on these charges is a great injustice.”
Güner said that when he asked prosecutors about the alleged criminal organization, he was told its organizational chart would be drawn up later.
“There is no concrete allegation against me,” he said, adding that he did not know any of the companies named in the investigation and had never instructed anyone to cancel a tender.
Among the others jailed were municipal council members Emre Doğan and Ahmet Ağırman and Deputy Mayor Mesut Akıncı, according to Turkish media reports.
Ankara Mayor Mansur Yavaş, also a member of the CHP, criticized the decision, pointing to Güner’s voluntary return to Turkey as evidence that he posed no flight risk.
“We are talking about a mayor who immediately returned to Turkey when the detention order was issued while he was abroad and who would have appeared to testify whenever summoned,” Yavaş said on social media.
“Where is the risk of flight? Where is the possibility of tampering with evidence?” he asked. “The evidence and documents are there. None of them is going anywhere.”
The Çankaya investigation is the latest in a series targeting CHP-run municipalities since the party defeated President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) in the March 2024 local elections.
Hundreds of CHP officials and municipal employees have been detained or jailed in corruption investigations over the past year, including İstanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, Erdoğan’s main political rival and the CHP’s presidential candidate.
İmamoğlu has been in pretrial detention since March 2025 and is standing trial with hundreds of co-defendants on charges including leading a criminal organization, bribery and bid rigging. He denies wrongdoing and says the prosecution is politically motivated.
At least 31 CHP mayors were in jail as of late June, according to a count compiled by business news outlet bne IntelliNews. Güner is the latest opposition mayor to be put in pretrial detention.
The CHP and rights groups describe the investigations as a government campaign to overturn the opposition party’s gains in the 2024 local elections and eliminate Erdoğan’s political rivals.
Erdoğan’s government denies interfering in the judiciary and claims the courts operate independently.
