Istanbul mayor stripped of political rights for two and a half years

The mayor of Istanbul has been sentenced to prison, AFP reports, following a court decision where he was accused of insulting government officials. Imamoglu’s office announced that he was sentenced to 2 years, 7 months and 15 days, and deprived of his civil rights.

Kemal Kilicdaroglu, who was in Berlin on a visit, decided to return to Istanbul on a special flight as soon as he learned about the court decision. Imamoglu, who was a rising star on the Turkish political scene when he was elected in 2019, is expected to be relegated from political life in the months leading up to the presidential and parliamentary elections. As of early morning, as in previous hearings, the area around the court, located in the Asian part of Istanbul, was completely closed to traffic, and the police blocked the roads, AFP notes.

Supporters of Imamoglu held a demonstration during the court hearing for the sentencing of the case. Image: UMIT BEKTAS/REUTERS

Hundreds of his supporters gathered in front of City Hall to denounce the decision against him. They shouted slogans like “Right, law, justice!” and called on the government and Erdogan to resign.

The verdict and the political ban must be confirmed by the appellate court. However, few political scientists doubt that this decision will not be changed.

A member of the social-democratic Republican People’s Party (CHP), the main opposition to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the 52-year-old mayor believes his trial is “political in nature.” “It’s really sad that we’ve come to this point, but I still want to trust the judges,” he said in an interview with private Turkish TV100 last Tuesday evening.

Imamoglu came under the regime’s guns after inflicting the most humiliating defeat on Erdogan’s party in March 2019, defeating the ruling AKP party in Istanbul’s mayoral election for 25 years.

His election was initially annulled by the government, forced to back down three months later in the face of electorate mobilization, giving the opposition an even wider victory. A few months later, Ekrem İmamoğlu called those who annulled his first election “idiots”, and for this remark he is being prosecuted by the Turkish judiciary.

On the political side, the opposition coalition, made up of six parties, including the CHP, has so far been unable to nominate a common candidate for the presidential election due in six months. The mayor of Istanbul is one of the few opposition leaders who, according to polls, are beating Erdogan. But CHP leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu, according to many observers, would prefer to run himself.

Declaring support for the leader of his party, Imamoglu did not close the door to a possible candidacy and assured that “her (party’s) shoulders are capable of taking on any responsibility.”

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