ISTANBUL, Turkey — Istanbul’s popular
opposition mayor faced new hearings Wednesday in a politically-charged trial
that could bar him from seeking office months before next year’s general
election.
اضافة اعلان
Prosecutors want to sentence
Ekrem Imamoglu to
between 15 months and four years in jail over a remark he made after defeating
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s ally in a hugely controversial 2019 mayoral
vote.
People who are sentenced to less than four years are
rarely put behind bars in Turkey.
But a conviction would disqualify Imamoglu — one of
the brightest stars of Turkey’s main secular party — from politics for the
duration of the sentence.
Imamoglu would continue serving as Istanbul’s mayor
while his almost certain appeal wound its way through the courts.
The mayor’s team views the trial as Erdogan’s
personal vendetta against one of his biggest rivals.
“Despite everything, I want to trust the judges, the
prosecutors, and the decision-makers,” he said on the eve of Wednesday’s third
hearing in the trial.
The case stems from 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 vote
“idiots”.
Prosecutors have charged the mayor with the crime of
“insulting” public officials.
Imamoglu has not personally attended the hearings
and there has been no indication of how long the trial might last.
Divided opposition
Imamoglu’s potential
disqualification from politics comes with Turkey’s opposition parties still
arguing about who should stand against Erdogan in next June’s presidential
vote.
The Istanbul mayor is among a handful of opposition
leaders that polls show could beat Erdogan in a head-to-head race.
Erdogan’s domination of Turkish politics has been
shaken by an economic crisis made worse by his unconventional approach to
interest rates.
But more recent polls
show Erdogan’s ratings beginning to recover thanks to his widely-praised
handling of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
This puts even more pressure on the opposition to
put aside their personal rivalries in the election campaign.
Imamoglu’s CHP party is headed by
Kemal Kilicdaroglu
— a leftist former civil servant who generally performs poorly in opinion
polls.
The CHP has been holding round-table talks with five
smaller allies about a single candidate who would not split the anti-Erdogan
vote.
Those talks have been mired by arguments over policy
and general unease about fielding Kilicdaroglu instead of someone more likely
to beat Erdogan.
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