The former mayor of Istanbul for the CHP party, Ekrem İmamoğlu, who was arrested on 19 March at his official residence and sent to prison four days later by a judge on serious corruption offences, appeared in court on Friday accused of threatening a state prosecutor, in one of the numerous pending cases that İmamoğlu still has with the justice system and which could remove him from politics.
According to Turkish news agencies, today’s hearing — which was attended by several prominent members of the CHP — began with İmamoğlu’s defence against the accusation that he made threatening comments about the Istanbul chief prosecutor, Akın Gürlek, and his family.
The trial, in which the former mayor faces a sentence of up to 7 years and 4 months in prison for making ‘statements considered to be threats’ against the prosecutor’s family last January and for ‘public insults against an official in the performance of his duty’ following the arrest of another CHP member (the mayor of the Beşiktaş district Rıza Akpolat, also on corruption charges), was finally postponed until 16 June after today’s hearing, as İmamoğlu’s lawyer told the media.
Also on Friday, the former mayor of Istanbul was subsequently facing another trial on charges of fraud in 2015, during his time as mayor of the Beylikdüzü district, although according to his lawyers he is not expected to attend in person. If he is ultimately convicted, İmamoğlu could be disqualified from holding any public office for several years, although in reality he was already disqualified in 2022 after being sentenced to three years in prison for insulting the Central Election Board, although the conviction is still under appeal.
The legal proceedings facing Ekrem İmamoğlu this Friday, currently suspended as mayor of Istanbul, are not related to the charges he faces following his arrest on 19 March and subsequent remand in the Silivri prison, which sparked a wave of protests in Turkey organised by the main opposition party that resulted in more than a thousand people detained.
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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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