A Turkish court has rejected appeals of the arrest of İstanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu and Murat Ongun, a senior city official, who have been jailed on corruption charges since late March, Turkish Minute reported.
İmamoğlu, who became a key opposition figure after his landmark victory in İstanbul’s 2019 mayoral election and his re-election as the mayor of İstanbul last year, is seen as the main rival to President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, whose increasingly authoritarian rule has faced growing criticism at home and abroad.
The mayor has been in pretrial detention since March 23 on corruption charges widely considered politically motivated. His arrest sparked countrywide protests, the largest in Turkey since 2013, and international condemnation.
Like İmamoğlu, Ongun, his press advisor and chair of the İstanbul Metropolitan Municipality’s media company, was also arrested in connection with an ongoing investigation into the municipality. Both were suspended from their jobs following their arrest.
Lawyers for İmamoğlu and Ongun had filed appeals on April 7, arguing that the detentions were unlawful and not supported by concrete evidence. The petition requested their immediate release or, if denied, a referral to a higher court.
In their appeals, the lawyers criticized the investigation for lacking factual clarity, noting that the accusations, ranging from bribery to data privacy violations, were not backed by time-specific or causally linked allegations.
According to Euronews, the İstanbul 10th Criminal Court of Peace on Monday ruled to uphold the pretrial detentions. The court sent the case to a criminal court of first instance for further review, which will decide whether to release the two or keep them incarcerated.
The development comes as journalist Deniz Zeyrek of Nefes newspaper claimed in a column on Monday that Erdoğan expressed frustration with the prosecutor overseeing the investigation into İmamoğlu on the grounds that the accusations against the mayor were weak.
According to Zeyrek, Erdoğan allegedly told the prosecutor he had expected the charges to be more solid, to which the prosecutor reportedly hinted at more serious developments if the other suspects in the investigation who were fugitives could be detained.
However, Turkey’s Directorate of Communications’ Disinformation Combat Center (DMM) denied the allegations in a statement posted on X later on Monday. The agency said no such conversation took place between Erdoğan and any member of the judiciary, calling the claims “fabricated and baseless” and warning the public against attempts to politicize ongoing legal proceedings.
Meanwhile, an İstanbul court on Monday ordered the release of three more young demonstrators who had been put in pretrial detention for participating in protests sparked by İmamoğlu’s arrest last month, with 43 remaining in custody, according to lawyers voluntarily representing the protesters.
Nearly 2,000 people, including university students, were detained during Turkey’s most widespread unrest in more than a decade, with in excess of 270 formally arrested. A statement from the İstanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office revealed last week that criminal charges have been filed against 819 people as part of 20 investigations launched in response to the protests over İmamoğlu’s arrest.
They are charged with violating Turkey’s law on public meetings and demonstrations.
Many say the arrest of İmamoğlu is politically motivated to sideline the mayor ahead of the next presidential election slated for 2028.
In response to unrest following the mayor’s arrest, Turkey’s authorities had temporarily issued a ban on demonstrations in İstanbul, the capital of Ankara and the coastal city of İzmir.
After the end-of-Ramadan festivities and the closure of universities briefly interrupted the demonstrations, protesters once again took to the streets of İstanbul and Ankara last week, although in fewer numbers.
