Detained Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu has denied “terrorism” charges brought against him, according to a court document seen by the Reuters news agency
“I see today during my interrogation that I and my colleagues are faced with unimaginable accusations and slanders,” Imamoglu said Saturday in his defence during a hearing, the document showed.
Later on Saturday, Imamoglu arrived at the Caglayan courthouse, where he was to be questioned by prosecutors, a spokesman for city hall said. Imamoglu will appear in court on Sunday as a judge is expected to decide whether to jail or release him.
The mayor, a key opposition figure and potential challenger to longtime President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, was detained on Wednesday by the government for alleged corruption and “terrorism”.
His detention came four days before his Republican People’s Party (CHP) planned to name him as its 2028 presidential candidate.
Erdogan on Saturday accused the CHP’s leadership of turning the party “into an apparatus to absolve a handful of municipal robbers who have become blinded by money.”
He also accused it of “doing everything to disturb the public peace, to polarize the nation.”
Reporting from Ankara, media’s Stefanie Dekker said Imamoglu is going to be moved from police custody to judicial custody on Saturday.
“We understand he will have a health check along with 100 or so others who are charged too, and then he will be transferred to the courthouse. So he will be questioned by a prosecutor later tonight,” she said.
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