Social Democrat mayor from Istanbul, arrested for corruption. The mayor defends himself: “It is the result of political operations and the masters without the basis”
A social-democratic mayor of a district in Istanbul was arrested on Saturday, September 13, under accusations of corruption, which raises the number of mayors in the main opposition party arrested at national level.
Hasan Mutlu. Photo: x/@hmutlu34
The Istanbul Prosecutor's Office ordered the detention of Hasan Mutlu, the mayor of the Bayrampa district – an area with about 270,000 inhabitants – along with 47 other people. They are accused of misappropriation, taking and bribery, as well as tender trick, according to the Turkish newspaper Cumhuriyet, taken by Agerpres.
During the investigation, the agents carried out searches in 72 homes and companies.
With the arrest of Mutlu, the total number of the district mayors in Istanbul held last year reached 12, among which are Ekrem Imamoglu, the chief mayor of the Turkish metropolis, considered until recently the highest-chance of defeating President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
In Turkey, a total of 19 social-democratic mayors were arrested, in a wave of investigations that the opposition qualifies as a judicial campaign orchestrated by the Islamist government to erode the electoral power of the Opposition Party.
“Dear neighbors, until this day, I served only Bayrampa and you, my esteem.
My head is high, my forehead is clean. There is no deed of mine for which I cannot count. (…) What happened is the result of political operations and masters without grounds.
Be sure that, together with you, dear inhabitants of Bayrampa, we will overcome these slanders, as well as these dishonors. I trust once again the consciousness and support of the inhabitants of Bayrampa ”, wrote Hasan Mutlu on the X network.
