(Adnkronos) – New crackdown on Istanbul by the government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. While the mayor of Turkey’s largest city, Ekram Imamoglu, has been in prison since March 19, Turkish authorities arrested 18 municipal employees this morning. According to Turkish media, those arrested include Cevat Kaya, Imamoglu’s brother-in-law, Dilek Kaya Imamoglu and Elcin Karaoglu, planning director at the Bosphorus municipal department.
The Istanbul Criminal Court also ordered house arrest for four other people, including Safak Basa, director of the Istanbul Water and Sewerage Administration, and Gozdem Ongun, wife of the director of the municipality’s media relations office, currently in prison. In the court documents, prosecutors referred to an “organized criminal group formed under the leadership of Ekrem Imamoglu”. This is the first time his name has appeared directly in a formal charge of criminal association. Other charges include setting up and directing a criminal organization, bid rigging, corruption and aggravated fraud.
Among those arrested are senior municipal officials, deputy directors of the municipality’s cultural company, the deputy mayor of Bakirkoy district, Imamoglu’s bodyguard and the director of the municipality’s expropriation department.
