On September 13, the opposition mayor of Bayrampasa district in Istanbul, Hasan Mutlu of the CHP, was arrested by Turkish officials in a mass corruption investigation. Raiding 72 sites in total in the city, security forces pursued 48 individuals suspected of embezzlement, bribery, and abnormalities in city tenders.
Mutlu has denied the charges as a politically driven move to undermine the opposition, ahead of local elections. The government insists that the probe only concerns corruption. The arrest further fuels growing tensions in the relationship between the administration of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and CHP-led municipalities, with critics of rising judicial pressure being used against elected officials.
