Istanbulians watch a televised debate between Binali Yildirim (right) of Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and Ekrem Imamoglu (left) of the Republican People’s Party (CHP), both candidates for mayor of Istanbul, June 16, 2019 OZAN KOSE / AFP
The crackdown on opponents of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan continues. On Wednesday, December 14, Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, a rising star in Turkey’s political scene, was sentenced to more than two years in prison and an equally long ban from holding a political office for “insulting officials”. six months before the crucial elections in Turkey.
The city councillor, a member of the Republican People’s Party (CHP, Social Democrat), the main opposition party against Mr Erdogan’s power, has been accused of calling “idiots” the members of the electoral college that invalidated his election in March 2019, and Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu.
Mr Imamoglu immediately decided to appeal this sentence of two years, seven months and fifteen days imprisonment, his lawyer, Mr Kemal Polat, said. The appeal will be suspensive, he said, meaning Mr Imamoglu will retain his tenure as mayor while the appeal is considered.
“A handful of people cannot confiscate the power entrusted to them by the people. Our struggle will resume with even greater vigour,” Mr Imamoglu reacted after the verdict was announced. The verdict, delivered by a court in Istanbul, adds a “deprivation of certain rights” to Mr Imamoglu’s prison sentence, including the right to the same length of time as his sentence, lawyers said. If the verdict is upheld in the appeals process, “the ban on political activity will apply for the same period as the verdict that was imposed,” confirmed the lawyer.
“This trial sums up the situation in Turkey,” Mr. Imamoglu said in the evening, sitting on the roof of a bus, to several thousand people who had gathered in front of City Hall and shouted “Long live freedom, death to tyranny!” . », « Government, resign! or “Law, law, justice!” “. “It started the day they tried to take away our victory in the elections [municipales] From Istanbul. But they won’t succeed,” he pounded.
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Possible presidential candidate
Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, a rising star in Turkey’s political scene, has been sentenced to more than two years in prison for “insulting officials”. BURHAN OZBILICI v AP
The 52-year-old mayor was targeted by the regime after inflicting its most humiliating defeat on Mr Erdogan’s party in March 2019 when he won the mayoralty of Istanbul, which had been ruled for twenty-five years by the ruling judiciary Development Party (AKP) . His election was initially annulled by the government and three months later forced to bow in the face of electoral mobilization that offered the opponent a major victory. Some time later, Ekrem Imamoglu called those who invalidated his first election “idiots”, earning him criminal prosecution. “I only responded by sending him his own terms back to the Home Secretary, who called me an idiot,” the councilor said.
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The mayor of Istanbul does not shy away from dreaming of higher office. “I’m not only addressing Istanbul, but also Ankara, Izmir, Diyarbakir, Trabzon,” he warned on Wednesday evening, listing other cities that have passed into the hands of the opposition, some of whose elected officials have been sidelined by power: “To those who want to intimidate us: I’m still young and I’m still excited! ‘ he claimed, using the slogan in effect at the time of his election.
And maybe he’ll win the bet. Six months before the presidential election, the opposition alliance of six parties, including the CHP, has still not succeeded in nominating a joint candidate for the upcoming presidential election in June 2023. Incidentally, the mayor of Istanbul is calculating under a handful of opposition leaders who are hailing the polls as the winner against Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who is facing a severe economic crisis and official inflation hovering around 85%.
CHP boss Kemal Kilicdaroglu, on the other hand, would like to run for office himself. Mr. Kilicdaroglu, who traveled to Berlin, preferred his return to Turkey on Wednesday. Before boarding the plane, he denounced in one Video message posted on Twitter“a massacre of the law” and “lazy justice”.