Despite the demonstrations, the mayor of Istanbul, Ekrem Imamoglu, sent to prison for « corruption » – Liberation

Mass manifestations nothing will have done nothing. A judge ordered incarceration for this Sunday, 23 March for « corruption » The mayor of Opposition of Istanbul, Ekrem Imamoglu, whose arrest on Wednesday launched a wave of protest in Türkiye, announced one of his lawyers. The Turkish Interior Ministry also said in a statement that the councilor had been « Suspended from his functions ». Justice, on the other hand, rejected a request for incarceration for « terrorism » Contrary to the elected official, the main rival of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, learned AFP.

Ekrem Imamoglu was taken to Silivri prison, west of Istanbul, with several co -accused, assured his party and the Turkish media. One of the mayor’s lawyers immediately announced that he will dispute the order of incarceration. « The current legal process (…) is an execution without trial », commented Ekrem Imamoglu in a message transmitted by his lawyers, calling « The nation to fight ». « I am standing, I will never fold »also promised the political representative in a message published on X, swearing that « Everything will be fine »: A slogan he had made his own in 2019 after the cancellation of his election as mayor of Istanbul, ultimately obtained with a second ballot.

Ekrem Imamoglu had been brought on Saturday evening with 90 of his co-accused to the Stambouliote court of Caglayan, protected by a very important police device, Before being heard there twice in the night. Until late, tens of thousands of people were gathered in front of the town hall of Istanbul for the fourth consecutive evening to the call of the opposition to support Ekrem Imamoglu, which denounced accusations « Immoral and baseless » against him. Protesters spent the night inside the town hall, some trying to sleep on chairs arranged in the hall of the vast building while waiting to be fixed on the fate of the mayor, noted an AFP photographer.

In an attempt to prevent disorders, the governorate of Istanbul extended the ban on gatherings until Wednesday evening and announced restrictions on the city to people likely to participate in gatherings, without specifying how it would implement them. The accusation of « Support for a terrorist organization » Against Ekrem Imamoglu, a figure of the republican party of the people (CHP, social democrat), the main opposition force, makes its support feared its replacement by an administrator appointed by the State at the head of the largest city in the country if it is imprisoned.

Since Wednesday, the dispute triggered by its arrest has spread across Turkey, reaching an unprecedented scale since the great protest movement of Gezi, in 2013, who left the Taksim place in Istanbul. Gatherings took place in at least 55 of the 81 Turkish provinces, more than two thirds of the country, according to a statement made on Saturday by AFP. These demonstrations led to hundreds of arrests in at least nine cities in the country, according to the authorities.

Sunday evening, the social network X announced that the Turkish authorities had asked the platform to close more than 700 accounts of opponents. « We oppose the multiple decisions of the Turkish Authority for Information and Communication Technologies requesting the blocking of more than 700 accounts of press organizations, journalists, political figures, students and other people in Turkey », wrote the social network communication team on X.

Ekrem Imamoglu, 53 years oldbecame the bane of the Turkish president by delighting in 2019 the economic capital of the country to the Party of Justice and Development (AKP, Islamo-conservative) of the Head of State, who kept hands on Istanbul with his camp for twenty-five years. The opposition councilor, triumphantly re -elected last year, was to attend his nomination this Sunday as a candidate of his party on Sunday for the next presidential election, scheduled for 2028.

The CHP decided to maintain the organization of this primary, which started at 8 am, and called all the Turks, even not registered in the party, to take part.

Update : at 11:50 am, with incarceration for « corruption » and not for « terrorism »; at 5:03 p.m. with the suspension of his functions and the place of his incarceration; at 8:18 p.m. with the request to delete the 700 accounts of opponents on X.