Turkish authorities should present credible evidence of corruption against İstanbul’s jailed mayor or immediately release him, US Senator Adam Schiff said on Thursday as he urged his colleagues to back a resolution calling out President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan over what he called democratic backsliding, Turkish Minute reported.
Erdoğan’s main rival, Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, was jailed in March pending trial on corruption charges, sparking Turkey’s largest protests in a decade. Popular support for İmamoğlu has since risen further above Erdoğan, opinion polls show.
The mayor has denied all charges. His arrest triggered market turmoil and accusations of a politicized judiciary that the government has rejected, saying the judges are independent.
Schiff’s resolution, seen by Reuters, calls for Erdoğan and law enforcement authorities to release İmamoğlu or present credible evidence against him, and to uphold democratic values.
“The continued detention of Mayor Imamoglu, as well as the harassment and arrest of dozens of journalists and dissenting political voices in Turkey, is the latest in an unfortunate trend in the democratic backsliding that Turkey has seen under President Erdogan,” Schiff said in a statement to Reuters.
“The Senate should send a loud and clear message that the unjustified jailing of Erdogan’s political rivals is not acceptable.”
The resolution also urges US Secretary of State Marco Rubio to speak out about the detention and engage Turkey over what it calls anti-democratic behavior.
Rubio’s State Department has said little on İmamoğlu’s case, calling it an internal judicial matter for NATO ally Turkey, while calling for human rights to be respected.
