The Mayor of Istanbul, Ekrem Imamoglu, who was arrested in March, has been sentenced by a Turkish court to one year and eight months in prison for defamation. Imamoglu, a vocal critic of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his main rival in the 2028 presidential election, is expected to appeal the verdict.
In recent months, several mayors and politicians belonging to the opposition party CHP have been arrested in Turkey. The arrests are being criticized as politically motivated. President Erdogan's regime is reportedly trying to counter the secular CHP in various ways, which had significant successes in last year's local elections. The arrest of Imamoglu in March triggered a widespread wave of protests in the country.
