Riza Akpolat, mayor of Istanbul's Besiktas district, has been sentenced to 23 years and 3 months in prison for, among other things, bribery and money laundering.
"I am innocent. There is no evidence, everything is based on witness statements from my detractors," he said after the verdict.
Akpolat, who was dismissed by the Interior Ministry after his arrest last year, was one of at least five mayors sentenced to prison on Monday. What the convicted men all have in common is that they belong to Turkey's main opposition party, the CHP. The others sentenced received sentences of up to just over eight years in prison.
They were all part of a huge legal case in which around 200 people were accused of being members of a criminal network.
