Istanbul court sentences five opposition mayors, with prison terms of up to 23 years

Five mayors from Turkey’s opposition, all members of the Republican People’s Party (CHP), have been sentenced to prison by a court in Istanbul after being found guilty of corruption-related charges.

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

All five were arrested during the first part of 2025 as part of a series of investigations involving a significant number of CHP officials, the main opposition force challenging President Rexhep Tajip Erdogan.

The longest sentence, 23 years and three months in prison, was handed to Besiktas Mayor Riza Akpolat. He was found guilty of corruption, money laundering and violations of public procurement procedures, while being acquitted of charges of membership in a criminal organization, state-run Anadolu Agency reported.

Akpolat has denied all the charges. Before the court, he declared himself innocent and stressed that there was no conclusive evidence against him, claiming that the entire case was based on defamatory testimony.

Unlike his colleagues, the mayor of Adiyaman, a city in the southeast of the country, was released after the court found him not guilty. Meanwhile, another mayor, elected in 2024 to lead one of Istanbul’s most populous outlying districts, received an eight-month suspended sentence for “negligent abuse of power.”

In the same trial, businessman Aziz Ihsan Aktaş, who had provided statements implicating several opposition local politicians, was acquitted and released. He had initially faced charges as the leader of a suspected criminal organization and risked a sentence of up to 280 years in prison.

The trial is part of a broader wave of arrests and investigations targeting CHP representatives. Following the opposition’s decisive victory in the 2024 local elections, dozens of mayors have been detained or suspended from office in cities across Turkey.

At the center of the political and legal confrontation is also Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, one of the opposition’s most prominent figures and a potential rival to Erdogan. His arrest last year on corruption charges—which he denies—triggered powerful demonstrations across Turkey.

Imamoglu’s detention was followed by mass protests, while clashes between the government and the opposition have further intensified political tensions in the country.