An İstanbul court on Thursday ordered the release of Zeydan Karalar, the mayor of Turkey’s Adana municipality, and eight other defendants following their arrest as part of a wide-ranging corruption probe, the DHA news agency reported.
Karalar and the other defendants were released by the İstanbul 1st High Criminal Court, which is hearing a case involving businessman Aziz İhsan Aktaş, accused by prosecutors of leading an organized crime group that allegedly secured public contracts through bribery.
The court ruled that the defendants be freed under a travel ban, while ordering the continued detention of 24 others, including several opposition mayors. The trial, being held at the Marmara Prison’s courthouse complex, a prison campus in İstanbul’s Silivri district often used for high-profile trials, was adjourned until Monday.
Karalar, a member of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), was detained on July 5 after visiting jailed İstanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu at Marmara Prison and arrested three days later on charges of extortion and money laundering. He was subsequently suspended from office.
According to the indictment, Aktaş allegedly organized bribery schemes involving multiple municipalities, leading to the arrest of dozens of officials and business figures. Aktaş was previously released after cooperating with prosecutors under Turkey’s “effective remorse” provisions.
CHP leader Özgür Özel welcomed the court’s decision, describing Karalar’s detention as unjustified.
Speaking during a television broadcast from Adıyaman marking the third anniversary of the February 6, 2023, earthquakes, Özel said Karalar had been “unlawfully deprived” of his ability to serve the people of Adana for more than seven months.
The anniversary commemorates one of the deadliest disasters in Turkey’s history. Twin magnitude 7.8 and 7.5 earthquakes struck 11 provinces in southern and southeastern Turkey, killing at least 53,000 people and leaving millions homeless after tens of thousands of buildings collapsed.
The scale of the devastation was widely blamed on poor construction practices and years of failure to enforce building regulations in earthquake-prone areas.
Shortly after his release, Karalar returned to Adana, where his first public appearance was at a memorial marking the February 6 earthquakes. He attended a commemoration held for the Alpargün Apartments, where 96 people lost their lives when the building collapsed, and met with families of the victims.
In a brief statement shared on X after the event, Karalar said going directly from prison to the memorial was a moral responsibility to those who had died and those left behind.
Türkiye’nin en karanlık, en acı günlerinden biri olan 6 Şubat depremlerinin yıl dönümünde, Alpargün Apartmanı’nda hayatını kaybeden canlarımızı anmak için kıymetli aileleriyle bir araya geldik.
Büyük bir acının izlerini hâlâ yüreğimizde taşırken; Silivri’den çıkar çıkmaz bu… pic.twitter.com/wFsHrjKudO
— Zeydan Karalar (@ZeydanKaralar01) February 6, 2026
The collapse of the Alpargün Apartments, built in 1975, immediately aroused suspicions since Adana, located less than 200 kilometers (120 miles) from the earthquake’s epicenter, was largely spared from the violent tremors.
Hasan Alpargün was sentenced in September 2024 to 865 years in prison and 62 life sentences for “having caused the death and injury of more than one person with possible intent.”