A Turkish court has ordered the continued pretrial detention of 13 young protesters who were detained during a demonstration earlier this month in support of jailed İstanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, while prosecutors have filed an indictment against 35 people in connection with the protest, Turkish Minute reported.
The massive protest on July 1 was organized by the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) in front of İstanbul City Hall in Saraçhane to mark the 100th day since İmamoğlu’s imprisonment and was attended by thousands of people.
İmamoğlu, seen as the most powerful political rival of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, is a leading figure in the CHP and its presidential candidate for the next election. He was jailed in March in what critics describe as a politically motivated corruption probe.
On July 1 Turkish police initially detained 42 protestors, 13 of whom were subsequently jailed. All 13 are among the 35 named in the indictment drafted by the İstanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office.
According to Anka, the 35 people under indictment are charged with violating Article 32/1 of Turkey’s Law No. 2911 on Meetings and Demonstrations, which criminalizes failure to disperse after police warnings. Among those indicted is journalist Engin Deniz İpek of the Cumhuriyet newspaper.
Prosecutors claim that after the end of the protest, which was allowed by the authorities, approximately 500 people gathered in a nearby park and refused repeated police orders to disperse.
Members of the crowd threw glass bottles and stones at riot police, pushed barricades and chanted slogans that were allegedly insulting to President Erdoğan. Police intervened around 11 p.m., resulting in mass detentions, according to the prosecutors.
A separate investigation into alleged insults of the president has been referred to the Press Crimes Investigation Bureau.
Meanwhile, the 64th Criminal Court of First Instance in İstanbul ruled on Wednesday that the 13 protestors under arrest will remain behind bars pending trial, citing strong evidence and the severity of the charges.
“The defendants’ statements, incident reports, video evidence and case file indicate the presence of concrete facts pointing to the strong suspicion of a crime,” the court said. “Considering the date of arrest, the severity of the alleged offense and the principle of proportionality, the continuation of their detention is justified,” the court added.
İmamoğlu’s arrest sparked widespread protests in March, with thousands gathering outside İstanbul City Hall at the urging of the CHP. The rally quickly escalated into nightly clashes with riot police and spread across the country, marking Turkey’s worst street unrest in over a decade.
Nearly 2,000 people were detained, among them many students as well as a handful of journalists.
Although the nightly protests ended after a week, the CHP has continued to hold rallies across Turkey, boosting its standing in the polls.
The CHP has been under a harsh crackdown for about a year that has so far led to the arrest of 17 CHP mayors and dozens of party officials.
