İstanbul Mayor İmamoğlu sentenced to pay a fine for ‘insult’

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The court has handed down its ruling in the lawsuit where İstanbul Metropolitan Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu was charged with "insult."

Put on trial for "insulting" Seddar Yavuz, the former Governor of Ordu province, Ekrem İmamoğlu has been sentenced to pay 20 lira per day for 354 days, which makes a total of 7 thousand 80 lira*.

Standing trial at the Ordu 4th Penal Court of First Instance, İmamoğlu was facing 6 months to 2 years in prison on the offense charged.

What happened?

After the Supreme Council of Election (YSK) cancelled the İstanbul election and took opposition candidate Ekrem İmamoğu's certificate of election back, he run in the repeat elections to be held on June 23. After he went to his home city Trabzon for the Sugar Feast, he held rallies in Trabzon and neighboring Ordu and Giresun as part of his election campaign.

During his rally in Ordu on June 5, 2019, İmamoğlu said that Ordu Governor Seddar Yavuz was pressuring them to end the rally early. In the evening of the same day, he went to the Ordu-Giresun Airport to leave Ordu.

He wanted to pass through the VIP at the airport and get on the plane, but he was not allowed to enter the area upon the instruction of Governor Seddar Yavuz. In response to this, İmamoğlu said, "The Governor did something vile ("itlik" in Turkish; "it" is a colloquial form of dog, used as an insult by some). Tell him this straight away, the Governor did something vile."

A lawsuit was then filed against Ekrem İmamoğlu over these remarks. The İstanbul Metropolitan Mayor faced 6 months to 2 years in prison on charge of "insulting a public official due to his or her duty."

(HA/SD)

* Approximately 940 US Dollars or 790 Euro.