CHP holds urgent meeting over court case against Istanbul mayor

ANKARA

Senior officials of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) have come together to discuss the road map of the party should the Court of Appeals approve a four-year political ban on Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu given by a local court in late 2022.

A Turkish court had sentenced İstanbul Mayor İmamoğlu to two years and seven months in prison and imposed a political ban on charges of insulting members of Türkiye’s Supreme Electoral Council.

The Court of Appeals is expected to hear the case in the coming days.

“I don’t think it will be approved but in case it is approved, nobody should expect us to accept it as something normal,” CHP Chairman Özgür Özel told reporters on Sept. 24 before his departure to New York to attend the Socialist International meeting.

“I will immediately return if the court approves,” he said, describing the court case as a plot against İmamoğlu, who is seen as the strongest candidate for the next presidential elections.

Özel informed that senior officials from the CHP, as well as İmamoğlu, were convened on how to react against a potential court decision that approves the political ban on the Istanbul mayor.

Gökhan Günaydın, deputy parliamentary group leader of the CHP, told the daily Sözcü that the party will first appeal to a higher court, the Supreme Court of Appeals, to overturn the decision by the Court of Appeals.

In case the Supreme Court of Appeals approves the decision, İmamoğlu risks losing his office as the Istanbul mayor, too.