Turkiye on the boil as Erdogan rival imprisoned ahead of graft case trial

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.

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Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu was detained following a raid on his residence earlier this week, sparking the largest wave of street demonstrations in Turkiye in more than a decade. It also deepened concerns over democracy and rule of law in Turkiye.

His imprisonment is widely regarded as a political move to remove a major contender from the next presidential race, currently 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. A request for him to be imprisoned on terror-related charges was rejected.

There has been some violence, with police deploying water cannons, tear gas, pepper spray and firing plastic pellets at protestors in Istanbul, Ankara and Izmir.

The formal arrest came as more than 1.5 million members of the opposition Republican People’s Party, or CHP, began holding a primary presidential election to endorse Imamoglu as its presidential candidate.

With Imamoglu as the sole candidate, the primary — announced last month — was largely a symbolic show of support. Large crowds gathered early on Sunday to cast a “solidarity ballot”.

“This is no longer just a problem of the Republican People’s Party, but a problem of Turkish democracy,” Fusun Erben, 69, said at a polling station in Istanbul’s Kadikoy district. “We do not accept our rights being so easily usurped.”

In a message posted on social media, Imamoglu called on people to show “their struggle for democracy” at the ballot box. He warned Erdogan that he would be defeated by “our righteousness, our courage, our humility, our smiling face”.