Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on July 7, 2025
2 min readLast updated: January 23, 2026
Add as preferred source on GoogleIstanbul Mayor's lawyer claims charges are fabricated, part of a crackdown on Turkey's opposition. Protests and financial turmoil followed Imamoglu's arrest.
By Ece Toksabay
ANKARA (Reuters) -The lawyer for Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, who like the mayor is in jail under an expanding crackdown on Turkey's opposition, told Reuters on Monday he faces "entirely fabricated" charges meant to criminalise the right to a legal defence.
Mehmet Pehlivan, who had already been detained for a day in March, was held last month on charges of membership of an unspecified criminal organisation.
A probe into the main opposition party, Imamoglu's CHP, was expanded well beyond Istanbul at the weekend, and dozens were detained.
The arrest in March of Imamoglu, President Tayyip Erdogan's main political rival, sparked the biggest street protests in a decade, and a sharp selloff in the lira and other Turkish assets.
In written responses from prison, Pehlivan said his arrest amounted to a bid to criminalise not only legal defence but the profession of lawyers as a whole:
"We are faced with a mindless judicial practice that has severed its ties with reality and truth."
Pehlivan said the evidence presented against him was false and based on a purported phone call and meetings he had never held, and alleged ties to a person he had never met. He said his work for Imamoglu had been restricted to his duties as a lawyer.
"For the first time in the Republic's history, the practising the law has been categorised as a crime," he wrote. "Even if this categorisation causes a result for me today, its impact is a threat to all lawyers."
The government rejects opposition allegations that the probe is politicised and anti-democratic, saying the judiciary is independent.
In a statement on Sunday, Erdogan's office said that members of the ruling AK Party had also been investigated and arrested in the past over similar crimes.
The office did not immediately respond to Pehlivan's allegation that the charges against him were baseless and a threat to legitimate legal activity.
(Writing by Tuvan Gumrukcu; Editing by Jonathan Spicer and Kevin Liffey)
The lawyer, Mehmet Pehlivan, faces charges of membership in an unspecified criminal organization, which he claims are entirely fabricated.
The arrest of Imamoglu sparked the largest street protests in a decade and led to a significant selloff in the lira and other Turkish assets.
The government rejects allegations that the probe is politicized and anti-democratic, asserting that the judiciary operates independently.
Pehlivan describes the judicial practices as 'mindless' and disconnected from reality, asserting that legal defense is being criminalized.
Pehlivan states that for the first time in the Republic's history, practicing law has been categorized as a crime, posing a threat to the legal profession.
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