An İstanbul court on Thursday ordered the conditional release of 15 defendants in a corruption trial involving jailed opposition mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s main political rival, according to Turkish state broadcaster TRT.
İmamoğlu, the elected mayor of İstanbul and a leading figure in the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), has been jailed for more than a year.
He is accused of leading a criminal network and faces 142 charges. If convicted on all counts, he could face up to 2,430 years in prison.
TRT said the 15 people released Thursday included several İstanbul Municipality employees and three businessmen. One of the businessmen didn’t deny some of the accusations brought by prosecutors, according to the broadcaster.
Eighteen other defendants, including İmamoğlu’s chief of staff, had already been released in early April under an interim ruling, although the charges against them were not dropped.
İmamoğlu has been on trial with 413 co-defendants since March 9. Seventy-seven defendants remain in pretrial detention.
İstanbul Bar Association President İbrahim Kaboğlu condemned the proceedings as a “political trial.”
He told Agence France-Presse that the pretrial detention of the 77 defendants was mostly “unconstitutional.”
İmamoğlu and his supporters accuse Erdoğan’s government of trying to prevent him from challenging the president in the next election, which is scheduled for 2028.
© Agence France-Presse