Police in Turkey have detained dozens of people in raids linked to alleged corruption at İstanbul City Hall, two months after the jailing of Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, the Anka news agency reported.
Forty-four people were detained in dawn raids on Friday, with police still searching for another five in line with a warrant for 49 people issued by the İstanbul Public Prosecutor’s Office, Anka said.
İmamoğlu was arrested then jailed two months ago on corruption charges he denies, a move that sparked Turkey’s worst protest in decades.
He was widely seen as the biggest political rival to longtime President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, and his jailing is likely to prevent him from running in the 2028 presidential election.
Among those picked up in the latest raids were İmamoğlu’s private secretary and his private protection officer, with police conducting raids across Turkey, it said.
In a statement published early Friday, the İstanbul Public Prosecutor’s Office said it had ordered the police’s financial crimes unit to arrest 49 people with “detention, search and seizure operations ongoing.”
It said the warrant was in connection with unspecified “irregularities.”
Gökhan Günaydın, deputy parliamentary group chair of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), has criticized the latest wave of police operations targeting the İstanbul Municipality, claiming they are politically motivated.
Günaydın said some of the city officials detained in the fourth wave of operations had previously been taken into custody and released. “There are 1,400 municipalities in Turkey. The target is the İstanbul Municipality, but let’s be clear, the real target is İmamoğlu,” he said, referring to İstanbul’s jailed mayor.
92 arrested, 237 detained in corruption probe linked to İmamoğlu
As part of the expanding corruption investigation targeting the İstanbul Municipality, Turkish authorities have detained 237 people and arrested 92 so far, the Kısa Dalga news website reported on Friday.
The raids are part of a wide-ranging investigation initiated by the İstanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office, which accuses municipal officials of irregular tenders and bribery.
The first operation was carried out on March 19 and resulted in 106 detentions, including that of İmamoğlu. The mayor, his adviser Murat Ongun and 53 others were arrested. İmamoğlu was then removed from office and is currently in pretrial detention at Marmara Prison in Silivri.
A second wave followed on April 26, resulting in the detention of 53 people. Among the 18 arrested were İmamoğlu’s brother-in-law, Cevat Kaya, and senior municipal planning officials.
On May 20, the third wave of raids led to the detention of 22 individuals, including Taner Çetin, head of the municipality’s Department of Press, Publications and Public Relations. Thirteen were later arrested. Two days later, seven additional employees from the city’s landscaping department were detained and subsequently jailed.
Critics say President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan wants to sideline İmamoğlu in the next presidential race, with the ongoing crackdown on him and his party.
İmamoğlu’s arrest came following months of growing judicial pressure on the party that led to the arrest and removal from office of several of its mayors in İstanbul on either terrorism or corruption charges, seen as politically motivated.