Turkey releases lawyer of jailed Istanbul mayor, lawyer says

ANKARA (Reuters) -Turkish authorities released a lawyer for jailed Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, President Tayyip Erdogan's main political rival, after detaining him overnight, an attorney for the lawyer said on Friday.

Imamoglu, from the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP), leads Erdogan in some polls. He was jailed pending trial over allegations of graft on Sunday, provoking the largest anti-government protests in more than a decade, which have led to mass arrests nationwide.

Mehmet Pehlivan, a lawyer who defended Imamoglu in the latest investigation, was detained "for fabricated reasons", CHP lawmaker Turan Taskin Ozer said in a post on X, without giving details.

Pehlivan's lawyer, Yigit Gokcehan Kocoglu, said on X that his client was detained "not for doing anything, but simply for being our Mayor Ekrem's lawyer and for doing his advocacy job". He said the detention was meant as a "warning".

Kocoglu said Pehlivan had been asked during his questioning about a money transfer that Pehlivan had not carried out, as well as a donation to a charity. Pehlivan was barred from travelling abroad upon his release, his lawyer said, adding they would appeal.

The interior and justice ministries did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Imamoglu, who was replaced by an interim mayor on Wednesday, had demanded the immediate release of his lawyer.

"As if the coup on democracy wasn't enough, they can't stand the victims of this coup defending themselves," Imamoglu said on X.

JOURNALISTS DETAINED

The CHP, other opposition parties, rights groups and Western powers have all said the case against Imamoglu is a politicised effort to eliminate a potential electoral threat to Erdogan.

The government denies any influence over the judiciary and says the courts are independent.

Separately, two journalists who covered the anti-government protests in Istanbul were detained early on Friday, the Journalists' Union of Turkey said.

The detention of the journalists came a day after a Turkish court freed seven other journalists, including an Agence France-Presse photojournalist Yasin Akgul, who were earlier jailed for "attending an illegal march" while covering last week's mass protests.

Justice Minister Yilmaz Tunc said on Thursday there was a misperception about the treatment of journalists in Turkey and that Ankara did not arrest reporters.

The CHP has called on Turks to continue protesting, saying it would organise rallies and gatherings at different locations in Istanbul and elsewhere. Erdogan has dismissed the protests as a "show" and warned of legal consequences for protesters.

Protests, particularly by university students in Istanbul and Ankara, continued on Thursday and police detained many protesters, Haberturk and other Turkish media reported.

Also on Thursday, Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said 1,879 people had been detained since the protests began more than a week ago, adding that courts jailed 260 of them pending trial.

The CHP has called a mass rally in Istanbul's Maltepe district on Saturday.

(Reporting by Huseyin Hayatsever and Ece Toksabay; Editing by Clarence Fernandez and Alex Richardson)