Authorities have detained a lawyer for jailed Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoğlu, an MP of the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) said on Friday.
Mehmet Pehlivan, a lawyer who defended Imamoglu in the latest investigation, was detained "for fabricated reasons," CHP deputy Turan Taşkın Özer said in a post on X, without giving details.
It was reported that the lawyer was detained on charges of "laundering assets derived from a criminal act."
Imamoğlu was detained on March 19 and formally arrested on March 23. Between those dates and afterward, riots broke out across Türkiye as the mayor’s party sought to mobilize crowds to protest it.
Along with Imamoğlu, the court in Istanbul ordered the arrest of his close aide, Murat Ongun, who served as head of a media company of the IBB, and Tuncay Yılmaz, director of the Imamoğlu family's construction company. So far, 48 suspects detained earlier this week have been formally arrested. Several others, including businesspeople and a singer, were released with judicial control, with the court ordering them to report to authorities regularly and with bans in place regarding traveling abroad.
While the opposition criticizes the arrest as politically motivated, the government denies any influence over the judiciary and says the courts are independent.
The CHP has called on people to continue protesting, saying it would organise rallies and gatherings at different locations in Istanbul and elsewhere. Erdoğan has dismissed the protests as a "show" and warned of legal consequences for protesters.
Protests, particularly by university students in Istanbul and Ankara, continued on Thursday and police detained many protesters.
Also on Thursday, Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said 1,879 people had been detained since the protests began more than a week ago, adding that courts jailed 260 of them pending trial.
The CHP has called a mass rally in Istanbul's Maltepe district on Saturday. Türkiye announced nine days of holidays where protests are expected to simmer down.
