Turkey jails Imamoglu's lawyer as government crackdown continues
Opposition and legal groups condemn the arrest as an attempt to undermine legal defense rights.
ANKARA — Turkey's main opposition parties and legal groups condemned the arrest of Mehmet Pehlivan, lawyer for Istanbul’s imprisoned mayor, Ekrem Imamoglu, calling it part of a crackdown aimed at silencing political dissent and intimidating lawyers.
Late on Thursday, an Istanbul court jailed Pehlivan on charges including membership in a criminal organization, a move the Republican People’s Party (CHP) and the Turkish Bar Association along with rights activists slammed as a politically motivated attack on legal defense rights.
Pehlivan rejected the accusations. “The only organizations I belong to are the Turkish Bar Association and the Istanbul Bar Association,” he posted on X, adding that the right to defense is sacrosanct.
Under Turkish law, prosecutors are required to secure authorization from the Justice Ministry before investigating lawyers for actions related to their professional duties. Pehlivan said that in his case, that permission was not obtained prior to his summons.
Turkey’s Bar Association described the move as a violation of Turkish citizens' rights to a fair trial and legal defense in a statement on Friday.
“The charges leveled clearly show that the target is not only lawyer Mehmet Pehlivan, but the institution of legal defense,” the statement read. It noted that the lawyer's arrest came as part of “a systematic policy of intimidation against lawyers.”
CHP Chairman Ozgur Ozel also condemned the move, calling it a violation of “sacred” defense rights.
Pehlivan’s arrest comes as part of a broader crackdown on the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality, which has seen more than 100 people jailed.
Imamoglu, a presidential contender for the CHP and a key rival of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, was detained on March 19 and on March 23, he was jailed on corruption charges and suspended from his duties.
His arrest sparked the country's largest protests in more than a decade. Imamoglu denies any wrongdoing as he awaits the prosecutors’ indictment behind bars.
Turkish authorities also dismissed 11 CHP mayors from their duties amid allegations of corruption or terrorism.
While government critics say the crackdown is designed to silence political opposition and consolidate power, the Turkish government insists that the Turkish judiciary acts independently.
