Turkey arrests opposition mayor accused of tender rigging

Authorities in Turkey arrested a mayor from the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) early on Friday, after prosecutors accused him of rigging public tenders, an accusation his party dismisses as politically motivated.

Riza Akpolat, the mayor of Istanbul's central Besiktas district, has been detained by police since Monday in an investigation into an alleged criminal organisation suspected of rigging public tenders by bribing public officials.

Akpolat denies the accusations. The CHP said there was no concrete proof to justify the arrest and the jailing was politically motivated. In a post on X after the arrest, party leader Ozgur Ozel called it an attempt to defame the party.

Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, also a CHP member who is seen as a potential future challenger to President Tayyip Erdogan, said the leader of the organisation concerned won many public tenders including some from municipalities led by the ruling AK Party.

Imamoglu flagged the possibility that he could be targeted in the investigation.

"If Istanbul municipality and I are the target here, you don't need to make my friends suffer. My file for the political ban is in the appeals court, just approve it," he said in a protest against Wednesday's detention of the mayor.

In 2022, Imamoglu himself was sentenced to 31 months in prison for insulting public officials in 2019, when he criticised a decision to cancel the first round of municipal elections, in which he beat Erdogan's AK Party, which had held power for 25 years.

He has appealed against that verdict, which if upheld by a higher court, would see him banned from politics for five years.

Another mayor of an Istanbul district, also a CHP member, has been under arrest on terrorism-related charges since October.

Critics say Turkey's judiciary has been bent to Erdogan's will to punish his critics. The government says the judges are independent.