We're losing our opposition
Ekrem Imamoğlu is not just the mayor of Istanbul, a city whose population of 16 million surpasses that of many EU countries, he's also the opposition's best shot at ever defeating long-term president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. And: he's an avid collector of indictments.
The fourth court proceeding against the opposition mayor is perhaps the gravest, and, as the opposition would argue, most ridiculous. Imamoğlu faces up to four years in prison and a ban from all political duty for “attempting to influence a judicial officer, expert or witness”.
The expert in question is the mysteriously named S.B. – an anonymous witness whose testimonies have not just been used in cases against the mayor of Istanbul. As we explained a few weeks ago, Türkiye's president started a crusade against opposition mayors. Besides Imamoğlu, a member of the Republican People Party (CHP), mayors of the pro-Kurdish DEM party as well as the leader of far-right Victory Party face legal troubles.
Among the most notable examples are the mayors of Esenyurt, Türkiye’s largest district, and Beşiktaş, a historically leftist district within Istanbul, who were both arrested on questionable charges. Imamoğlu accused S.B. of submitting fraudulent reports and pointed out that of the thousands of experts in Istanbul, the files related to him always end up on the desk of the all-elusive S.B.
Imamoğlu needs a good legal team. Beyond this indictment, he was also already sentenced to two years and seven months in prison for ‘insulting’ a member of the Supreme Election Council, accused of fraud in his time as the mayor of the Beylikdüzü district, and is under investigation for comments he made about a prosecutor in Istanbul.
The justifications for indictments against opposition figures are lazy at best and highly questionable at worst. Secret witnesses, vague links to organised terror groups, and prosecutors “scared” by criticism – justifying legal actions against the opposition becomes easier by the day.
Imamoğlu himself was not shy of sharing what he thought of the indictment. ”Mr. President [Recep Tayyip Erdoğan] is behind all of this. The name of the person who is trying to eliminate me from politics is well known.” Imamoğlu is set to run in the primaries of the CHP on 23 March to determine who will be the presidential candidate of the largest opposition party.