Turkey Jails Istanbul Mayor Who Was Expected to Run for President

A Turkish court on Sunday jailed the mayor of Istanbul pending trial on corruption charges, according to the state-run Anadolu news agency, sidelining a potential contender in Turkey’s next presidential election and the top rival of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.The mayor, Ekrem Imamoglu, was arrested at his home on Wednesday, four days before he was set to be named the presidential candidate of Turkey’s political opposition.He has denied the accusations against him, which Mr.

Erdogan’s opponents have called a ploy to prevent a popular politician from running for president.The court ordered that Mr.Imamoglu be jailed on accusations of corruption pending a trial, the state-run news media said.

State prosecutors have accused him of leading a criminal organization and overseeing bribery, bid rigging and other financial misdeeds at City Hall.Prosecutors also accused him of supporting terrorism through his political coordination with a pro-Kurdish group during local elections last year.The court has not yet ruled on whether he will be jailed for those accusations as well.The decision to jail Mr.

Imamoglu, who has been elected mayor three times since 2019, raised the possibility that he would be removed from office.Critics of Mr.Erdogan, who has dominated Turkish politics for more than two decades, have long accused him of using state power to undermine his rivals.

But, they say, arresting a presidential contender to eliminate him from the race before it begins represents a new level of authoritarianism.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe....