Istanbul’s city council will meet on Wednesday to appoint a replacement for mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, after he was officially suspended from his duties following his arrest on corruption charges, Turkish authorities announced.
Mr Imamoglu, the popular leader of Turkey’s largest city, was formally arrested on Sunday and is remanded in custody on charges of establishing and leading a criminal organisation, accepting bribes, misconduct in office, unlawfully recording personal data and bid rigging, according to his office, quoting a court decision. He denies the charges.
He was not arrested over allegations of assisting an armed terrorist organisation, which was among the reasons for his initial detention. The court cited how he has already been remanded in custody for alleged financial crimes, so said it was, “unnecessary to make a decision on this particular charge at this stage”. He is being held at a prison in Silivri, west of central Istanbul.
The Istanbul governorship – a body separate from the mayoralty that comes under the Interior Ministry – said that Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality Council would meet on Wednesday to choose a replacement for Mr Imamoglu. He was re-elected to lead the city of 16 million people last year for a second term after beating a competing candidate from President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP).
Officials will also meet on Wednesday to replace a district mayor in Istanbul who was arrested alongside Mr Imamoglu on Sunday on charges of extortion and belonging to an organisation established for the purpose of committing a crime.
A second district mayor, another ally of Mr Imamoglu, has already been replaced with an Interior Ministry-appointed trustee after he was arrested over allegedly aiding an armed terrorist organisation, a charge that allows him to be immediately substituted.
Widespread protests have taken place across Turkey in support of Mr Imamoglu and the officials arrested alongside him, with clashes taking place between demonstrators and police, who used water cannon and pepper spray. Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said some protesters threw acid on security troops.
Mr Erdogan said on Monday the protests had turned into a "movement of violence" and the main opposition party would be held accountable for injured police officers and damage to property.
Mr Imamoglu is widely seen as the most serious competition to Turkey’s future leadership for Mr Erdogan, who has been in power for more than two decades. Mr Imamoglu’s party, the Republican People’s Party (CHP) is the main opposition group and on Sunday, members went to the ballot box to choose the arrested mayor as their candidate for future presidential elections.
More than 15 million people cast votes, according to CHP officials, in a symbolic ballot in which Mr Imamoglu was the only name on the ballot paper. Most of the votes were from non-CHP members, to whom the vote was opened up for “solidarity” votes, the party said.
Mr Imamoglu’s ability to run in a future presidential election – not scheduled until 2028, although an early vote may be called – has already been thrown into question. Before his arrest, Istanbul University stripped him of his diploma, quoting alleged irregularities in his 1990 transfer from a private university in northern Cyprus, the Associated Press reported. Under Turkish rules, a president must have a university degree, although Mr Imamoglu is expected to appeal.
The charges against Mr Imamoglu and his associates are complex and multi-faceted. He stands accused of manipulating public tenders, accepting and offering bribes, embezzlement and laundering illicit funds through shell companies and fake invoices, leading to losses of hundreds of millions of Turkish lira from the public purse. The defendants deny the charges against them.
Turkish government officials have denied that the arrest of Mr Imamoglu and his associates is politically motivated.
“It is wrong to describe the ongoing judicial investigation as a ‘political investigation,’ and drawing legal evaluations to political grounds may cause false perceptions in the public opinion and also constitutes a violation of the principle of the state of law,” Justice Minister Yilmaz Tunc said.
