Key Erdogan rival to be jailed, orders Turkish court

Ekrem Imamoglu, mayor of Istanbul. Pic/X/@ekrem_imamoglu

A court formally arrested the mayor of Istanbul and key rival to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Sunday and ordered him jailed pending the outcome of a trial on corruption charges.Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu was detained following a raid on his residence earlier this week, sparking the largest wave of street demonstrations in Turkiye.

His imprisonment is regarded as a political move to remove a major contender from the next presidential race, scheduled for 2028. Government officials reject accusations that legal actions against opposition figures are politically motivated and insist that Turkiye's courts operate independently.

The prosecutor's office said the court decided to jail Imamoglu on suspicion of running a criminal organisation, accepting bribes, extortion, illegally recording personal data and bid-rigging.

This story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed, agencies. Mid-day accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability, trustworthiness, reliability and data of the text. Mid-day management/mid-day.com reserves the sole right to alter, delete or remove (without notice) the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever