A court formally arrested the mayor of Istanbul and key rival to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan early on Sunday and ordered him to be jailed pending the outcome of a trial on corruption charges.
Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu was detained following a raid on his residence earlier this week, sparking the largest wave of street demonstrations in Turkey in more than a decade.
It also deepened concerns over democracy and the rule of law in Turkey.
His imprisonment is widely regarded as a political move to remove a major contender from the next presidential race, currently scheduled for 2028.
Government officials reject accusations that legal actions against opposition figures are politically motivated and insist that Turkey’s courts operate independently.
The prosecutor’s office said the court decided to jail Imamoglu on suspicion of running a criminal organisation, accepting bribes, extortion, illegally recording personal data and bid-rigging.
A request for him to be imprisoned on terror-related charges was rejected.
Interior minister Ali Yerlikaya said on Sunday that 323 people were detained the previous evening over disturbances at protests.
Largely peaceful protests across Turkey have seen hundreds of thousands come out in support of Imamoglu.
However, there has been some violence, with police deploying water cannons, tear gas, pepper spray and firing plastic pellets at protestors in Istanbul, Ankara and Izmir, some of whom hurled stones, fireworks and other missiles at riot police.
The formal arrest came as his opposition Republican People’s Party, or CHP, began holding a primary presidential election to endorse Imamoglu as its presidential candidate despite the arrest.
The party has also set up symbolic ballot boxes nationwide — called “solidarity boxes” — to allow people who are not party members to express their support to the mayor.
Fusun Erben, 69, said at a polling station in Istanbul’s Kadikoy district, said: “This is no longer just a problem of the Republican People’s Party, but a problem of Turkish democracy.
“We do not accept our rights being so easily usurped. We will fight until the end.”
Speaking at a polling station in Bodrum, western Turkey, engineer Mehmet Dayanc, 38, said he feared that “in the end we’ll be like Russia, a country without an opposition, where only a single man participates in elections”.
In a message posted on social media, Imamoglu called on people to show “their struggle for democracy and justice to the entire world” at the ballot box.
He warned Mr Erdogan that he would be defeated by “our righteousness, our courage, our humility, our smiling face”.
Ankara Mayor Mansur Yavas, a fellow member of Imamoglu’s CHP, criticised the lack of confidentiality in the proceedings, telling reporters: “Honestly, we are embarrassed in the name of our legal system.
“We learned from television pundits about the allegations that even lawyers did not have access to, showing how politically motivated this whole ordeal has been,” he said.
The mayor’s arrest marks an escalation of a government crackdown on opposition figures and dissenting voices.
Before his detention, Imamoglu had already faced multiple criminal cases that could result in prison sentences and a political ban.
He was also appealing a 2022 conviction for insulting members of Turkey’s Supreme Electoral Council.
Earlier in the week, a university nullified his diploma, citing alleged irregularities in his transfer from a private university in northern Cyprus some 30 years ago.
The decision effectively bars him from running for president, since the position requires candidates to be university graduates.
Imamoglu had vowed to challenge the decision.
Imamoglu was elected mayor of Turkey’s largest city in March 2019, in a major blow to Mr Erdogan and the president’s Justice and Development Party, which had controlled Istanbul for 25 years.
Mr Erdogan’s party pushed to void the municipal election results in the city of 16 million, alleging irregularities.
The challenge resulted in a repeat of the election a few months later, which Imamoglu also won.
The mayor retained his seat following local elections last year, during which the CHP made significant gains against Mr Erdogan’s governing party.
