Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, a leading political rival of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, announced on Friday that his lawyer had been detained on what he called "fictitious grounds."
"My lawyer, Mehmet Pehlivan, was detained on fictitious grounds," İmamoğlu wrote in a social media post published by his legal team. Pehlivan had represented the mayor during a court hearing on corruption charges earlier this week.
The detention marks the latest escalation in a widening crackdown following İmamoğlu’s arrest last week, which triggered the largest anti-government protests in Turkey in a decade. Authorities have since detained nearly 1,900 people, including demonstrators and journalists.
Private broadcaster Habertürk reported that Pehlivan was detained over allegations of "laundering assets derived from criminal activity." Turkey’s Interior and Justice Ministries did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
İmamoğlu, who has been temporarily suspended from his post as mayor due to the ongoing case, demanded his lawyer’s immediate release.
"As if the coup against democracy wasn’t enough, they can’t stand the victims of this coup defending themselves," he said in a separate post. His Republican People’s Party (CHP), opposition groups, and Western governments have condemned the case as a politically motivated attempt to sideline a key challenger to Erdoğan. The government denies interfering in judicial proceedings, insisting courts operate independently.
Separately, the Journalists’ Union of Turkey (TGS) said two reporters—Nisa Sude Demirel of Evrensel and Elif Bayburt of ETHA—were detained early Friday while covering protests. The arrests came just a day after a court released seven journalists, including an Agence France-Presse photojournalist, who had been held for covering earlier demonstrations.
International scrutiny has intensified, with the BBC confirming Thursday that its correspondent, Mark Lowen, was deported for reporting on the unrest. Turkey’s media regulator, RTÜK, also fined four broadcasters—SZC TV, Tele1, Halk TV, and NOW TV—over protest coverage, ordering SZC TV to suspend operations for 10 days.