Five opposition mayors in Turkey sentenced to prison, with sentences reaching 23 years

A court in Istanbul has sentenced five opposition mayors to prison, all of them members of the Republican People’s Party (CHP), after finding them guilty in cases related to corruption.

According to Turkish media reports, the sentences range from five years to more than 23 years in prison.

The five mayors were arrested during the first half of 2025 as part of investigations involving numerous CHP representatives, the main opposition force to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

The heaviest sentence was handed down to the mayor of Besiktas, Riza Akpolat, who was sentenced to 23 years and three months in prison. According to Turkey’s state-run Anadolu news agency, he was found guilty of corruption, money laundering and violations in public procurement, but was acquitted of the charge of membership in a criminal organization.

Akpolat has denied the allegations, telling the court that he was not guilty. He said there was no conclusive evidence against him and that the case file was based on defamatory statements.

Meanwhile, the mayor of the southeastern city of Adiyaman was found not guilty and the charges against him were dropped. Another mayor, elected in 2024 to lead one of Istanbul’s most populous outlying districts, received an eight-month suspended prison sentence for “negligent abuse of power.”

In the same case, businessman Aziz Ihsan Aktaş was acquitted, even though his testimony had implicated several local opposition politicians. He was initially accused of leading a suspected criminal organization and faced a possible prison sentence of up to 280 years.

The trial is part of a broader series of investigations and arrests targeting CHP officials. Since the opposition’s major victory in the 2024 local elections, dozens of elected mayors have been arrested or removed from office in various cities across Turkey.

At the center of the political and judicial tensions is also Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, one of the opposition’s leading figures and a potential rival to Erdogan. His arrest last year on corruption charges, which he denies, sparked major protests across Turkey.

Mass demonstrations following Imamoglu’s arrest were accompanied by an escalation in the confrontation between the government and the opposition, deepening political tensions in the country.