Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoğlu will appear before an Istanbul court on Friday for a case involving a threat against Istanbul Chief Prosecutor Akın Gürlek.
It will be the first time Imamoğlu will make an appearance in public since his arrest last month in a separate case, though it is not clear whether the hearing will be open to the public.
The hearing will be held inside a courtroom at a courthouse-prison complex where the former mayor is incarcerated in Istanbul’s Silivri district.
Prosecutors are seeking a prison term of up to seven years and four months for Imamoğlu, who is already embattled with trials involving corruption, irregularities and insult.
Chief Prosecutor Akın Gürlek is the aggrieved party in the indictment by the Istanbul Chief Prosecutor’s Office Terror Crimes Investigation Department.
The indictment states that Gürlek, who has prosecuted cases against terrorist groups, was already on the target list of several organizations, including the Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party/Front (DHKP/C). It further alleges that Imamoğlu amplified this targeting, used insulting language against Gürlek, and attempted to intimidate the prosecutor.
Prosecutors accuse Imamoğlu of using his influence as a mayor to exert pressure on judiciary organs and members in a bid to win favors in lawsuits involving his party.
The former mayor made “statements qualifying as threats” in January against Gürlek’s family after the arrest of Beşiktaş District Mayor Rıza Akpolat on charges of corruption.
The CHP has singled out the prosecutor for acting as a “guillotine” for President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan following Akpolat’s arrest, accusing him of orchestrating the arrest of Ahmet Özer, another CHP mayor who was serving in the Esenyurt district before he was charged with links to the PKK terrorist group last year.
The government has dismissed accusations of political interference in the cases and says the judiciary is independent.
