Turkish prosecutors on Wednesday launched an investigation into the leader of the country’s main opposition party for allegedly insulting a senior ally of the government, state television reported.
The case against Özgur Özel, chair of the Republican People’s Party (CHP), is the latest development in a struggle between allies of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his opponents that has sparked mass protests.
Prosecutors opened an investigation into claims that Özel threatened and insulted İstanbul’s chief prosecutor Akın Gürlek, state television channel TRT reported, citing a statement from his office.
Özel is accused of launching a verbal attack against Gürlek at a rally in İstanbul on Wednesday evening.
A former deputy justice minister, Gürlek has been accused by opponents of going after Erdoğan’s rivals through a series of cases launched since he was appointed to the post in October.
Chief among these is the case against İstanbul’s Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu — Erdoğan’s leading electoral rival — whose arrest in March on contested corruption charges sparked weeks of angry street protests.
Since Gürlek’s appointment, eight CHP district mayors in Istanbul have also been arrested and jailed, most of them on corruption charges that they deny.
The CHP made advances in local elections in 2024 to the cost of Erdoğan’s conservative Justice and Development Party.
In a post on X on Wednesday evening, Justice Minister Yilmaz Tunc denounced “threats against the judiciary,” calling Özel’s statements against Gürlek “unacceptable.”
© Agence France-Presse