Court throws out corruption case seeking to oust Turkish opposition leader

A Turkish court ruled that the allegations against the country’s main opposition party, Ozgur Ozel, had no basis in the case.

The case, which involved allegations of vote buying and procedural irregularities at a Republican People’s Party (CHP) congress in 2023, was dismissed by the Ankara court on Friday after the judge found it had “no basis,” according to AFP news agency AFP.

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At the same time as hundreds of party members were in jail this year for alleged corruption, the case, brought by a former party member in February, sought to invalidate the results of the congress, which had resulted in the election of 51-year-old Ozel as chairman.

In Istanbul and other CHP-run municipalities, more than 500 people have been detained by Turkiye’s law enforcement, including 16 mayors, according to a review released by the Reuters news agency.

Ekrem Imamoglu, the CHP’s candidate for 2028 election, was detained for corruption in the crackdown last March, claiming he had lied. The arrest led to the largest protests in Turkiye in more than a decade and a sharp sell-off of the country’s lira, the currency.

After a court found that cash payments had an impact on delegates’ votes at a CHP provincial congress, the party’s Istanbul head was removed from office earlier this month. The party then removed the party’s court-named successor.

Additionally, it recently became known that prosecutors were seeking Riza Akpolat, the mayor of Besiktas’ Istanbul district, to serve a total sentence of 415 years in prison.

All accusations made by Ozel, who publicly accused President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of starting a “coup against the future ruling party,” in an effort to end one-party rule in Turkey, are politically motivated, according to the CHP.

The Turkish government maintains that the judiciary is impartial and rejects any political motivations for the inquiries into what Erdogan has described as a “corruption network whose arms extend to other parts of Turkiye and abroad.”

Most polls favor the CHP and Erdogan’s AK Party ahead of the presidential election in 2028.

Sinem Koseoglu, a reporter from Ankara, claimed the case was “critical” and that the ruling would “boost his]Ozel’s] legitimacy” and give him the opportunity to “strengthen his base” before the 2028 election.

She claimed that the court “probably hesitantly rendered such an annulment decision.”

Because political parties are private entities, constitutional experts have always advised people to ask them about handling any allegations involving them on the higher election board. She said a local court is permitted to not interfere.