Jailed Istanbul mayor faces court hearing for allegedly insulting prosecutor

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ISTANBUL (Reuters) – Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, a leading rival of Turkey’s President Tayyip Erdogan, will appear before a court on Friday for the first time since his high-profile arrest last month, over earlier accusations of insulting a prosecutor.

The hearing is to be held inside a courthouse-prison complex in Istanbul’s Silivri district where Imamoglu is currently jailed. It centres on charges that he insulted and threatened the chief Istanbul prosecutor.

The mayor was jailed in March pending trial over unrelated charges of corruption and aiding a terrorist group, a move that triggered mass protests, a sharp selloff in Turkish assets and broad accusations of a politicised judiciary.

Prosecutors are seeking a prison sentence of up to seven years and four months over remarks Imamoglu made earlier this year criticizing Istanbul Chief Prosecutor Akin Gurlek.

The indictment, filed by the terror crimes unit of the chief prosecutor’s office, accuses him of attempting to intimidate Gurlek.

Imamoglu, a member of the opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), has not commented publicly on the latest charges but has denied all wrongdoing in earlier cases, calling them politically motivated.

The CHP has accused the judiciary of doing Erdogan’s bidding, saying the arrests of numerous CHP mayors are part of a broader campaign to neutralize elected opposition officials ahead of any future national elections.

The government has rejected those claims and says the judiciary is independent.

(Reporting by Ece Toksabay; Editing by Jonathan Spicer and Gareth Jones)