ISTANBUL, Dec 17 (Reuters) – Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said on Saturday that courts will correct any mistakes in an appeal process after Istanbul’s opposition mayor was given a jail sentence, and in the meantime Turks had no right to ignore legal rulings.
In his first direct comments on Wednesday’s conviction of Ekrem Imamoglu – a popular potential challenger to Erdogan who was sentenced to two years and seven months in prison and handed a political ban – Erdogan said he did not care who will be the opposition candidate in next year’s elections.
Imamoglu was prosecuted for insulting public officials in 2019, Lawyer Turkey when he criticized a decision to cancel the first round of municipal elections that he had won against the 25-year incumbent government of Erdogan’s AK Party.(Reporting by Azra Ceylan; Writing by Jonathan Spicer; editing by John Stonestreet)