By Daren Butler
ISTANBUL (Reuters) – It was around six years ago, when newcomer Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu called election board officials “idiots” for cancelling his initial victory at the polls, that President Tayyip Erdogan noticed him as a serious political threat.
The comment prompted a conviction that was appealed – one in a blizzard of legal probes and indictments that culminated in his jailing on Sunday, pending trial, over corruption charges that have been widely criticized as politicised and anti-democratic.
The combination of election success and legal battles has now cemented Imamoglu’s status as Erdogan’s main rival and biggest threat to the president’s more than 22-year reign.
He has cultivated a fighting spirit that was displayed before police detained him early on Wednesday, criticising what he called a “coup” against the nation’s will.
“We are faced with great tyranny, but I want you to know that I will not give up,” he said in a video recorded on his phone and posted on X, describing hundreds of police officers gathering outside his home.
“I will continue to fight against that person,” the 54-year-old said, referring to Erdogan, 71.
The government denies opposition claims that Erdogan played a role in the legal moves and says the judiciary is independent.
Imamoglu’s political battle began in 2019, when he spearheaded a breakthrough opposition victory after years in the doldrums. He won the Istanbul municipal election in March, only for authorities to annul the result in May due to technicalities such as unsigned results documents and unauthorised ballot box officials.
The legal threats began that June, just before the re-run vote, when Erdogan said he would face consequences for allegedly insulting the governor of the Black Sea province Ordu while campaigning there.
Despite that, Imamoglu prevailed decisively in the re-run, taking 54% of votes to the ruling AK Party candidate’s 45% – dealing one of the biggest blows to Erdogan in his then 16 years in power.
Legal threats grew more serious in 2021 when prosecutors sought a four-year prison sentence for Imamoglu on a charge of insulting election officials, based on him calling them “idiots” in a speech just after the March 2019 election was annulled.
The following year a court sentenced him to two years and seven months in prison in the insult trial, triggering protests by thousands in support of the mayor.
LEGAL BATTLES
In a twist, Imamoglu’s legal battles recall those of Erdogan himself, who was imprisoned for four months in 1999 for reciting a poem deemed anti-secular when he was Istanbul mayor. Two years later he set up the AK Party, which came to power in 2002.
Veteran columnist Fikret Bila said Erdogan was one of several examples of politicians bouncing back after legal woes.
He cited Suleyman Demirel, Bulent Ecevit and Necmettin Erbakan, who all went on to be prime ministers after being banned from politics and jailed following a 1980 military coup.
“Even if the government prevents Imamoglu from running for office, it cannot succeed in keeping him out of politics,” Bila wrote on the opposition-aligned Halk TV website.
In the last two years, the legal onslaught accelerated. In June 2023, a court begin hearing a case against Imamoglu in a tender rigging case, related to his time as mayor of Istanbul’s Beylikduzu district between 2014-2019.
Despite the fresh legal battle, Imamoglu was re-elected in March 2024 as part of a thumping victory nationwide for his Republican People’s Party (CHP) and other opposition parties – again marking the biggest electoral defeat for Erdogan and his party.
Late last year the latest chapter began unfolding. Imamoglu and numerous other opposition officials were hit with a widespread legal crackdown that resulted in some losing their elected positions.
Early this year he denied charges of attempting to influence the judiciary following his criticism of legal cases against opposition-run municipalities.
In February prosecutors issued a third indictment against Imamoglu for remarks criticising the city’s prosecutor, seeking to jail him for seven years for insulting a public official.
Finally last week, police detained Imamoglu on charges of corruption and aiding a terrorist group. Four days later he was jailed, inflaming the country’s biggest protests in more than a decade.
(Reporting by Daren Butler; Editing by Jonathan Spicer and Angus MacSwan)
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