Former Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu has received a new prison sentence: a Turkish court sentenced him to two years and one month in prison and banned him from political activity. This is reported by infohub.kz.
The ruling was issued in a case concerning the politician's remarks about former head of the Tuzla district municipality in Istanbul, Sadi Yazici. Imamoglu had previously been acquitted in the same case, but an appellate court overturned the acquittal and sent the materials back for retrial.
As noted earlier, based on the cumulative charges against him, the former Istanbul mayor faced up to 2,430 years in prison.
Recall that Ekrem Imamoglu and his press liaison advisor Murat Ongun were detained during an anti-corruption special operation and brought to court on March 19, 2025. Protests subsequently broke out across the country. Soon after, a Turkish court ordered Imamoglu's arrest, and Nuri Aslan, a representative of the opposition party, took over as mayor of the city.
In July, it was reported that the former Istanbul mayor was sentenced to actual imprisonment for insulting a prosecutor — 20 months. And in late October, it was reported that a Turkish court acquitted Imamoglu in a corruption case, while the Istanbul Chief Prosecutor's Office launched a new criminal case against him and several other officials on suspicion of espionage related to the 2019 mayoral elections.