An Istanbul prosecutor as we speak opened a brand new judicial investigation in opposition to the town's mayor, Ekrem Imamoglu, for making an attempt to affect the judiciary for criticizing judicial investigations in opposition-controlled municipalities, Turkish media reported.
Information of the judicial inquiry broke minutes after Imamoglu, who’s seen as a possible challenger to Tayyip Erdogan for the presidency, accused Erdogan's authorities of utilizing the judiciary as a political software to strain the opposition.
In a press convention, Imamoglu stated that the identical skilled has been appointed in a number of judicial investigations in opposition to him and different regional municipalities in Istanbul managed by the primary opposition get together, the Republican Folks's Occasion (CHP), to which Imamoglu belongs .
The federal government rejects accusations of political interference in courtroom instances and maintains that the judiciary is impartial.
The brand new investigation, reported by the personal Anka information company and different Turkish media, comes per week after a judicial investigation was launched in opposition to Imamoglu for criticizing the Istanbul prosecutor who had briefly detained the CHP's youth chief .
Imamoglu has already been sentenced in 2022 for insulting public officers after criticizing a call to cancel the primary spherical of municipal elections held earlier through which he had received the ruling AKP's candidate. He appealed the choice, however whether it is upheld by increased courts, he may very well be banned from politics for 5 years.
Imamoglu was re-elected as mayor final yr when Erdogan's AKP suffered its worst ever losses in municipal elections.
Supply: RES-MPE
