Istanbul mayor jailed for ‘insulting’ officials ahead of 2023 election

ISTANBUL: A Turkish court on Wednesday sentenced Istanbul´s popular opposition mayor to nearly three years jail in a politically charged defamation trial that effectively bars him from standing in next June´s presidential election.

Ekrem Imamoglu´s team immediately vowed to appeal his conviction in a case stemming from a remark he made after defeating President Recep Tayyip Erdogan´s ally in a hugely controversial 2019 mayoral race.

People sentenced to less than four years are rarely put behind bars in Turkey. But his conviction for “insulting a public official” disqualifies the 52-year-old mayor -- one of the brightest stars of Turkey´s main secular party -- from politics for the duration of the sentence.

Imamoglu will continue heading Turkey´s largest and most fabled city while his appeal winds its way through the courts. “Government resign!” hundreds of Imamoglu supporters chanted outside the mayor´s office moments after the verdict was read out.

“Imamoglu means freedom to me,” Istanbul housewife Firdevs Gulmez said as the crowd grew into the thousands. “We love him. We did not expect such a punishment,” the 55-year-old said.

Imamoglu seized the moment by climbing atop a bus and addressing his supporters through a megaphone to huge cheers and waves of anti-government chants. “What happened here can happen to anyone,” he warned. “We will make those who condemned us regret what they did through the ballot box.”

The trial focused on an offhand remark Imamoglu made to reporters a few months after defeating Erdogan´s ally in a re-run election held after his first victory was annulled. Officials reported discovering hundreds of thousands of “suspicious votes” after Erdogan refused to acknowledge Imamoglu´s initial win in a city that he himself ran before entering national politics two decades ago.

The decision backfired badly on Erdogan´s Islamic-rooted party. Waves of protests and a groundswell of support from all political corners delivered Imamoglu an overwhelming victory in a re-run vote held that June.

Imamoglu let his frustration at the entire episode spill over a few months later by calling the people who annulled the first result “idiots”. An Istanbul court sentenced Imamoglu to two years and seven-and-a-half months in prison for defamation.

It also applied a separate clause of the penal code that bars the mayor from politics. Imamoglu´s pending disqualification comes with Turkey´s opposition parties still arguing about who should stand against Erdogan in the looming presidential vote.