Istanbul Mayor Convicted For Dissenting Comments

Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu has been sentenced to prison and banned from holding elected political office for making dissenting remarks, reports Human Rights Watch (New York).

On Nov. 4, 2019, Imamoglu told media that "those who canceled the March 31 [2019 Istanbul mayoral] election are fools," in reference to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's attempt to overturn the 2019 mayoral vote, which Imamoglu won.

He subsequently won the “rerun” election on Jun. 23, 2019. His victory marked the first time since 1994 that Erdogan's Justice and Development Party, and predecessor Welfare Party, lost control of Istanbul.

A Turkish court sentenced the mayor to 2 years, 7 months and 15 days in prison, saying that his remarks were an insult to the Higher Electoral Board, which had controversially issued the decision to cancel the first election.

Human Rights Watch described the conviction as a "violation of rights" as part of a "calculated assault on Turkey’s political opposition in the run up to 2023 elections."