ISTANBUL: A far-right political opponent of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday slammed ongoing graft probes into Turkey’s opposition as unfair, a day after being released from jail.
Umit Ozdag, who heads the small anti-immigrant Victory party, was placed in pre-trial detention on charges of inciting public hatred on January 20.
A court on Tuesday sentenced him to two years and four months behind bars, but ordered his release on grounds of time already served.
He is also being tried on a separate charge of insulting the president — a charge often used to silence Erdogan’s critics — with the next hearing on September 10.
Speaking to Anka news agency on Wednesday, Ozdag said the barrage of legal probes targeting municipalities run by the main opposition CHP was one-sided and “harmful”.
“The application of one law for (Erdogan’s AKP) ruling party and another for the opposition, is causing an extraordinarily harmful fragmentation within society,“ he said.
“You cannot convince the public that only CHP municipalities are involved in corruption and that there is no corruption worth prosecuting in AKP municipalities.”
Over the past nine months, there has been a surge in legal cases against CHP mayors and municipal officials on graft charges, with observers seeing it as a government move to weaken the party which scored a huge victory against Erdogan’s AKP in 2024 local elections.
The most controversial move was the removal of Istanbul mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, Erdogan’s biggest political opponent and the CHP’s candidate for the 2028 presidential race.
He was arrested on March 19 in connection with a graft probe and allegations of terror ties which critics say was designed to prevent him from running.
His arrest sparked protests across the country in the worst street unrest since 2013.
