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CBC
04-07-2025
- Politics
- CBC
Ekrem Imamoglu, rival of Turkish president Erdogan, faces a new criminal charge
Turkish prosecutors charged Istanbul's mayor, Ekrem Imamoglu, on Friday with falsifying his university diploma, a new case threatening more years in prison for President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's main rival, already jailed pending corruption charges he denies. Imamoglu, at the centre of a sprawling legal crackdown on the main opposition party, has been jailed since March 23 pending trial. The 54-year-old denies the allegations against him, which his party says are orchestrated to protect Erdogan in power. His indictment over his diploma was reported by Milliyet newspaper, which said prosecutors were seeking eight years and nine months of prison time for the new charges. Reuters could not immediately obtain the document. On March 18, Istanbul University said it had annulled Imamoglu's diploma. He was detained a day later on the corruption charges, triggering Turkey's largest protests in a decade, and later jailed pending trial. The March arrest came with the opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) poised within days to name the two-term mayor its official presidential challenger to Erdogan, who has run Turkey for more than two decades after becoming prime minister in 2004. Crackdown on the opposition The next election is set for 2028, but Erdogan has reached his two-term limit as president, after amending the constitution in 2018. The 72-year-old president is again seeking to amend the constitution, but has denied it is a move intended to keep him in power. Erdogan faced his worst electoral defeat last year when Imamoglu's CHP swept Turkey's major cities and defeated his ruling AK Party in former strongholds in nationwide municipal elections. Born in 1971 in the Black Sea province of Trabzon, Imamoglu studied business administration at Istanbul University before entering his family's construction business. Imamoglu joined the CHP in 2008 and became mayor of Istanbul's Beylikduzu district in 2014. He won the citywide election in 2019. A court annulled his initial victory, only for him to win the rerun election by an even wider margin. He won re-election as Istanbul's mayor in March 2024. That happened despite an earlier legal battle, when he was sentenced in 2022 to two-and-a-half years in prison for insulting public officials, though an appeals court has yet to rule in the case. Another case last year accused him of tender-rigging. His supporters view these charges as politically motivated attempts to sideline him, a claim Erdogan and the AKP deny. Still another investigation accuses Imamoglu and six others of aiding the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), considered a terrorist organisation by Turkey and its Western allies. Imamoglu's troubles are part of a months-long crackdown on the opposition. Early last month, three CHP mayors of Istanbul districts were suspended by federal authorities. While initially focused on Istanbul, this week Turkish authorities detained 109 people, including opposition party members and a former mayor, in Izimir, the Anadolu state news agency said.
LBCI
02-07-2025
- Politics
- LBCI
Turkish authorities detain 109 in Izmir as part of corruption probe, Anadolu news says
Turkish authorities detained 109 people, including opposition party members and a former mayor, on Tuesday in Izmir, the Anadolu state news agency said, expanding a months-long legal crackdown on the opposition that had been focused on Istanbul. The Izmir prosecutor ordered the detention of a total of 157 people in the early morning hours as part of an investigation into corruption, tender rigging, and fraud in the western coastal city, Anadolu reported. Police are continuing efforts to find the remaining 48 people, it added. Murat Bakan, an Izmir lawmaker from the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) - which has faced waves of arrests since late last year - said former Izmir Mayor Tunc Soyer had been detained along with senior officials and a provincial chairman of the party. "We woke up to another dawn operation today. We are facing a process similar to what happened in Istanbul," Bakan said on X, adding that the judicial system appeared to be "acting on instructions." Reuters
Irish Times
01-07-2025
- Politics
- Irish Times
Turkish authorities detain 109 in Izmir as part of corruption investigation
Turkish authorities detained 109 people, including opposition party members and a former mayor, on Tuesday in Izmir, the Anadolu state news agency said, expanding a months-long legal crackdown on the opposition that had been focused on Istanbul. The Izmir prosecutor ordered the detention of a total of 157 people in the early morning hours as part of an investigation into corruption, tender rigging and fraud in the western coastal city, Anadolu reported. Police are continuing efforts to find the remaining 48 people, it added. Murat Bakan, an Izmir politician from the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) – which has faced waves of arrests since late last year – said former Izmir mayor Tunc Soyer had been detained along with senior officials and a provincial chairman of the party. 'We woke up to another dawn operation today. We are facing a process similar to what happened in Istanbul,' Bakan said on X, adding that the judicial system appeared to be 'acting on instructions'. READ MORE Those arrested in Turkey's broader crackdown include Istanbul mayor Ekrem Imamoglu , the main political rival of president Recep Tayyip Erdogan . Mr Imamoglu was jailed in March pending trial on corruption charges, which he denies. That sparked the largest street protests in a decade and a sharp sell-off in Turkish assets. The CHP denies the charges levelled against it. Along with some western countries, the CHP and rights groups have called the crackdown a politicised move to eliminate electoral challenges to Erdogan and silence dissent. The government denies these claims, saying Turkey's judiciary and courts are independent. According to the prosecutor's statement published by Anadolu news, the investigation into Izmir municipality found that irregularities in tenders and expenses involving subcontractor companies had caused public loss. Meanwhile, a cartoon in a Turkish satirical magazine depicting what appeared to be prophets Muhammad and Moses was an 'Islamophobic hate crime', the spokesperson for Mr Erdogan's ruling party said on Tuesday. The comments amplify a wave of official condemnation a day after four cartoonists at the Leman magazine were detained over the drawing. The cartoon, published a few days after the 12-day conflict between Israel and Iran, appears to show Muhammad, who Muslims believe is the final prophet, and Moses, one of Judaism's most important prophets, shaking hands in the sky while missiles fly below in a wartime scene. It was also criticised by religious conservatives, even as the magazine apologised to readers who felt offended and said it had been misunderstood. More than 200 people arrived to protest against Leman in central Istanbul on Tuesday, despite a ban on gatherings and heavy police presence. 'This has nothing to do with art, ideas, freedom of expression or artistic freedom,' Omer Celik, the ruling AK Party spokesperson, told reporters in Ankara. 'In our view, this is a hate crime – an act of hostility directly targeting Islam, prophet Moses and our prophet.' Mr Erdogan and his Islamic-rooted AK Party regularly criticise what they call Islamophobic acts in secular Turkey and across Europe. Muslims see depictions of the prophet Muhammad as blasphemous. In a statement on X, Leman said 'the work does not refer to the prophet Muhammad in any way'. The cartoonist, Dogan Pehlevan, had sought to highlight 'the suffering of a Muslim man killed in Israeli attacks', it said, adding there was no intent to insult Islam or its prophet. The magazine urged authorities to counter what it called a smear campaign and to protect freedom of expression. Several civil society groups condemned the detentions, calling them a violation of freedom of thought and expression. Turkey's freedom of expression ranking is low due to restrictions on media and public discourse. Reporters Without Borders ranked it 158th out of 180 countries in its 2024 Press Freedom Index. Late on Monday, interior minister Ali Yerlikaya shared a video on X showing police officers detaining Mr Pehlevan with his hands cuffed behind his back as he was dragged up a stairwell. He also shared videos of three other men being removed from their homes and dragged into vans, one of them barefoot. 'The individual who drew this vile image, DP, has been apprehended and taken into custody. These shameless people will be held accountable before the law,' Mr Yerlikaya wrote. The government said an inquiry was launched under a penal code article that criminalises incitement to hatred and enmity, and that detention orders had been issued for six people in total. – Reuters
