The mayor of Istanbul was transferred to prison

The Turkish government suspended Istanbul’s opposition mayor, Ekrem İmamoğlu, on Sunday and jailed him on corruption charges, after his arrest on Wednesday sparked widespread protests unparalleled in Turkey for 12 years.

İmamoğlu, was transferred to Marmara Prison, also known as Silivri, west of Istanbul, along with several other defendants, according to his Republican People’s Party (CHP) and Turkish media.

İmamoğlu vowed not to give in, in a message posted through his lawyer on X, he urged his supporters not to lose hope and not to be discouraged.

The post said, “We’ll, hand in hand, erase this black stain from our democracy,” adding, “I won’t give in, and things will be fine”.

Earlier Sunday, a judge ordered the imprisonment of Istanbul’s mayor on corruption charges, as the Turkish judiciary rejected a request to detain him on charges of terrorism, according to what one of his lawyers and a spokesperson for the Istanbul municipality.

İmamoğlu’s lawyers announced that they will appeal the decision to imprison him.

“Ekrem İmamoğlu is on his way to prison, but he is also on his way to the presidency,” said Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Özgür Özel.

This comes as the Republican People’s Party (CHP) is holding primaries that are expected to position İmamoğlu as a candidate for the next presidential election, scheduled for 2028.

Amid widespread mobilization, the Republican People’s Party (CHP), which announced that millions of people had participated in the vote, decided to extend voting until 8:30 p.m. (17:30 GMT) instead of 5 pm as previously scheduled.

The Republican People’s Party (CHP) has once again called on Istanbul residents to gather in front of the city’s municipality building on Sunday evening, for the fifth consecutive day.

Since Wednesday, tens of thousands of people have been gathering every night in front of the building to support İmamoğlu.

In an effort to prevent unrest, Istanbul authorities extended the ban on gatherings until Wednesday evening and announced entry restrictions for people likely to participate in gatherings, without specifying how they would be enforced.

The wave of protests sparked by İmamoğlu’s arrest has spread across Türkiye, reaching a scale unprecedented since the massive Gezi protests of 2013, which began in Istanbul’s Taksim Square, while protests took place in at least 55 of Turk’s 81 provinces, and included clashes with riot police.

The clashes resulted in the arrest of hundreds of people in at least nine cities, according to the Turkish authorities.

Internationally, Paris and Berlin, along with the mayors of several major European cities, condemned İmamoğlu’s arrest on Wednesday.