An Istanbul court ordered on Sunday that the mayor of Istanbul, Ekrem İmamoğlu, must be arrested and sent to prison awaiting his trial due to the serious accusations of corruption against him after he was detained last Wednesday as part of an investigation launched by the public prosecutor’s office, in which more than a hundred people are accused.
In the last few hours, numerous Turkish media outlets have published the news of the imprisonment of İmamoğlu, whose arrest has sparked protests across Turkey that have left hundreds of people detained. Turkish newspaper Hürriyet reported, however, that although the metropolitan mayor of Istanbul was arrested days ago as part of a broad investigation including charges of corruption and collaboration with a terrorist group, the court ordered today İmamoğlu’s imprisonment only for charges related to crimes of corruption in the municipality, but rejected the prosecutor’s request to also send him to prison for his alleged relations with members of the PKK.
By not going to prison for terrorism-related offences, the main opposition party – the CHP, to which İmamoğlu belongs – will be able to continue holding the Istanbul mayoralty. In recent days there had been speculation about the possibility of the Turkish government appointing a trustee, as has happened in some municipalities in south-eastern Turkey where mayors have been suspended from office after being accused of links to the PKK; however, under Turkish law, the central executive can only appoint trustees for mayors who have been convicted or are in pre-trial arrest for crimes related to terrorism.
The Istanbul municipal assembly will have to elect a replacement
This means that if the court had sent İmamoğlu to prison for the charges against him of collaborating with members of the PKK, the CHP would have lost the metropolitan mayoralty of Istanbul, and the Turkish government would have appointed a person of its choice to replace him; but now, the main opposition party will be able to retain the mayoralty of the Turkish metropolis, although the Istanbul municipal assembly will have to elect a substitute — probably also from the CHP, as this party has the majority in the Istanbul assembly — to replace İmamoğlu while the judicial process continues.
Along with İmamoğlu, the court ordered on Sunday the imprisonment pending trial of Murat Ongun — one of the mayor’s closest collaborators — and Tuncay Yılmaz, director of the construction company owned by İmamoğlu’s family; more than 50 people arrested this week have also been arrested, including the mayor of the Istanbul’s district of Şişli, Resul Emrah Şahan, and the deputy secretary general of the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality (İBB), Mahir Polat. Other detainees on Wednesday have been released on bail and banned from leaving the country, including businessmen and the singer Ercan Saatçi.
The prosecution accuses İmamoğlu of leading a criminal and corrupt plot in the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality, in which he and his associates are alleged to have committed repeated crimes of fraud, extortion and money laundering, among others; these accusations are supported by numerous pieces of evidence, expert reports and even witness statements, including a video – which is part of another investigation – in which members of the CHP allegedly count large sums of money with which to buy the votes of CHP delegates who supported the election of Özgür Özel as secretary general of the main opposition party.
İmamoğlu could spend up to 2 years in prison awaiting trial
Imamoglu can now appeal the decision of the judge to send him to prison, in a process that could take several weeks. One of the main obstacles he will face in the appeal process, however, is the accusation that he led a criminal plot of corruption within the municipality; even if his lawyers can prove that he was unaware of the crimes of which he is accused, claiming ignorance or that they were committed by other people, the judge will consider him legally responsible for the crimes committed within the criminal organisation that he supposedly led, even if they were carried out by subordinates within the organisational structure or without his personal knowledge.
If the decision is final and the former mayor of Istanbul must remain in prison pending trial, he could remain in this situation for a period of 1 year and 6 months, which can be extended for a maximum of another 6 months: that is to say, according to Turkish law he cannot remain in preventive detention for more than 2 years. After those 2 years, Turkish courts would be obliged to release him if the trial has not taken place, although this is very unlikely.
In any case, by entering prison, Ekrem İmamoğlu not only ceases to be mayor of Istanbul while waiting for the municipal assembly to elect his replacement; he is also likely to lose his options to be candidate to the Presidency of Turkey, which had already become complicated after the University of Istanbul withdrew his university degree, which is compulsory in order to aspire to the position. The CHP party was holding a primary election today to choose its future candidate for the presidential elections, in which İmamoğlu – backed by Özgür Özel – was to be the main – and only – candidate. With his imprisonment, however, the political future of İmamoğlu is full of question marks.
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Edited and reviewed by:
Pablo Gómez is a specialist in Turkey and has been editor-in-chief of Hispanatolia since 2011. He has been analysing current affairs and geopolitics in Turkey and the surrounding region since 2006.
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