CHP leader suggests gov’t conspires against Istanbul mayor

Main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu on Jan. 3 accused the government of conspiring against Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu.

"We have important issues ahead of us. They want to seize the Istanbul Municipality, which the opposition won, with conspiracies," he said speaking to CHP members at the parliament.

Kılıçdaroğlu said the statements by İmamoğlu, which was subject to a court sentence for two years and 7 months in prison on charges of insulting members of Türkiye's Supreme Electoral Council, was actually addressing Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu.

"Then the file went before an honest judge. They changed this judge," Kılıçdaroğlu said adding the first judge was removed from the case and appointed to Samsun province.

Kılıçdaroğlu noted that the CHP would file a petition for investigation on the allegations expressed by this judge.

"This judge has some things to say. Our group vice presidents and some of our law-based deputies will apply to the justice ministry. We want an investigation to be opened on the allegations of the judge who was exiled to Samsun. If the investigation is not opened, the justice minister is also in this plot," the CHP leader said.

In this case, the judge announced his verdict without the prosecutor in the courtroom, he said and added, "There was no prosecution [at the hearing]. He cannot explain its decision. It is a first in the history of the Republic."