Foreign

AN Istanbul court on Wednesday adjourned verdict in a case against Istanbul’s opposition party Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu over alleged insult on state officials in a 2019 speech.

The hearing was adjourned until Nov. 11, İmamoğlu’s lawyer Kemal Polat told dpa.

Polat said the court accepted the defence’s request to invite a witness and to examine a DVD that contains the speech in question that İmamoğlu made.

Prosecutors were seeking up to four years in prison or a political ban for İmamoğlu for allegedly calling members of the Supreme Electoral Council (YSK) “fools’’ during a November 2019 speech.

This is according to an indictment seen by dpa.

The case was “unfortunately ongoing but the court should drop it as soon as possible,’’ İmamoğlu said on Wednesday in Istanbul, in remarks carried by his office.

If the court imposed a political ban or prison sentence of one year or more, İmamoğlu would have to step down, lawyer Polat said.

The mayor would stay in office until any such decision was final following an appeals process, he added.

İmamoğlu, from the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), narrowly won the March 2019 mayoral election against his rival from President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s ruling party.

He won in a re-run in June 2019 by a larger margin, after the YSK annulled the original result from March.

Considered a potential challenger to Erdoğan’s 20-year rule in the elections set for 2023, İmamoğlu was an outspoken critic of the president’s policies, particularly concerning the economy and urban planning. (dpa/NAN)

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Tags: Ekrem İmamoğlu Kemal Polat President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan Republican People’s Party (CHP) Supreme Electoral Council (YSK)