Istanbul’s jailed Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, the top rival to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, said his lawyer had also been arrested on false pretenses.
“There is no end to lies or slander … This time, my lawyer Mehmet Pehlivan was detained on fictitious grounds,” İmamoğlu wrote late Thursday night.
“As if the coup against democracy was not enough, they cannot tolerate the victims of this coup defending themselves. They want to add a legal coup to the coup against democracy. The evil that a handful of incompetent people are inflicting on our country is growing. Release my lawyer immediately,” he added.
According to Turkish newspaper Cumhuriyet, Pehlivan was taken to a police station where individuals are processed following their arrest. No formal charges were immediately announced.
İmamoğlu, widely regarded as the main political rival to longtime ruler Erdoğan, was initially arrested on March 19 and then formally detained by Turkish authorities on March 23 on corruption charges pending trial.
His arrest sparked massive protests across the country, with critics denouncing it as a politically motivated “coup.” Turkish authorities have arrested nearly 1,900 people since demonstrations began following İmamoğlu’s initial detention.
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