Istanbul mayor's jailed lawyer slams 'fabricated' charges

ANKARA - The lawyer for Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, who like the mayor is in jail under an expanding crackdown on Turkey's opposition, told Reuters on Monday he faces "entirely fabricated" charges meant to criminalise the right to a legal defence.

Mehmet Pehlivan, who had already been detained for a day in March, has been held since last month on charges of membership of an unspecified criminal organisation.

A probe into the main opposition party, Imamoglu's CHP, was expanded well beyond Istanbul at the weekend, and dozens were detained. CHP leader Ozgur Ozel criticised the arrests, and was promptly investigated for his remarks.

The arrest in March of Imamoglu, President Tayyip Erdogan's main political rival, sparked the biggest street protests in a decade, and a sharp selloff in Turkish assets. The lira slipped again on Monday after the weekend detentions.

In written responses from prison, Pehlivan said his arrest amounted to a bid to criminalise not only legal defence but the profession of lawyers as a whole:

"We are faced with a mindless judicial practice that has severed its ties with reality and truth."

Pehlivan said the evidence presented against him was false and based on a purported phone call and meetings he had never held, and alleged ties to a person he had never met. He said his work for Imamoglu had been restricted to his duties as a lawyer.

"For the first time in the Republic's history, practising the law has been categorised as a crime," he wrote. "Even if this categorisation causes a result for me today, its impact is a threat to all lawyers."

He also said Imamoglu's arrest was evidently a political move meant to eliminate an electoral rival to Erdogan, as there was "not a single concrete piece of evidence" against him.

The government rejects allegations from the opposition, some Western nations and rights groups that the probe is politicised and anti-democratic, saying the judiciary is independent.

In a statement on Sunday, Erdogan's office said that members of the ruling AK Party had also been investigated and arrested in the past over similar crimes.

Pehlivan also said statements by government officials and reporting by pro-government media suggested they had been unlawfully privy to confidential court documents.

Erdogan's office did not immediately respond to Pehlivan's assertion that the charges against him were baseless and a threat to legitimate legal activity.