Istanbul, Dec 15, (dpa/GNA) – An Istanbul court on Wednesday, imposed a political ban and two years and seven months in jail on the city’s mayor, Ekrem Imamoglu, for insulting Turkish election officials in a 2019 speech.
The court decision is not final, pending approval by the Supreme Court of Appeals, Imamoglu’s lawyer Kemal Polat told dpa.
If the decision is upheld, Imamoglu will have to step down as mayor, meaning he will be replaced by a figure from President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s ruling party, which dominates the city council.
“This decision is proof that there is no justice left in Turkey,” a defiant Imamoglu told hundreds of supporters outside the municipality building in Saraçhane district.
“I neither dismay nor give up … We will make those who tried to sentence us regret it at the ballot box,” Imamoglu added. He referred to a pending “slap of democracy” at the general and presidential elections planned for mid-2023.
“Government, resign!” people chanted.
Opposition party leaders and foreign observers have condemned the trial as politically motivated.
Imamoglu, from the main opposition Republican People’s Party’s (CHP), is considered a potential challenger to Erdogan and his 20-year rule in elections planned for June.
Recent polls, have shown Imamoglu a popular winner over Erdogan.
He won the 2019 local elections, ending 25 years of domination by Erdogan and his conservative Islamic predecessors in Turkey’s largest metropolis and financial capital.
Imamoglu was accused of calling members of the Supreme Electoral Council (YSK) “fools” during a November 2019 speech, according to an indictment seen by dpa.
Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu, publicly accused Imamoglu of “defaming” the election board.
Imamoglu denies the charges.
Imamoglu, who is an outspoken critic of Erdogan, beat his rival from Erdogan’s ruling party, and after the Supreme Electoral Council (YSK) annulled the result, he won in a re-run in June 2019 by an even larger margin.
“He [Erdogan] will be a presidential candidate for the last time, because he is going to lose,” Imamoglu said in televised remarks, hours before the court decision on Wednesday.
The leaders of a six-party opposition bloc, including the CHP, are expected to hold a meeting in Istanbul on Thursday. They are yet to name their joint candidate to go up against Erdogan.
It is not clear if and when the sentence against Imamoglu will be upheld.
Erdogan’s government has in the past replaced Kurdish mayors in the country’s south-east ahead of critical elections. Observers said the president may resort to similar tactics again.
Erdogan himself was also banned from politics and sent to prison when he was mayor of Istanbul in 1999.
He returned as prime minister with a landslide win a few years later.
Wednesday’s ruling could boost Imamoglu’s popularity as a “victim” and serve as a “déjà-vu moment” two decades later, broadcaster Halk TV argued.
GNA