Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said on Saturday that the courts would correct any mistakes in the appeals process after the opposition mayor of Istanbul was sentenced to prison, and that in the meantime Turks had no right to ignore court rulings, News.ro reported, citing Reuters.

In his first direct comment on Wednesday’s sentencing of Ekrem Imamoglu – Erdogan’s would-be popular rival who received two years and seven months in prison and a political ban – Erdogan said he did not care who the opposition candidate was in next year’s election.

Imamoglu, 52, was prosecuted for insulting public officials in 2019 when he criticized a decision to cancel the first round of municipal elections he won against Erdogan’s ruling Justice and Development Party government for 25 years.

Wednesday’s ruling, which can be appealed, came just six months before presidential and parliamentary elections in which Imamoglu was presented as a formidable potential opponent to Erdogan. The main opposition presidential candidate has not yet been chosen.

Imamoglu, a member of the opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), was on trial for a speech in which he said those who canceled the first ballot in the 2019 local elections, in which he narrowly defeated his AKP candidate Erdogan, were “stupid “. Imamoglu says the remark was in response to Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu, as he also used the same words against him.

Ekrem Imamoglu, Mayor of Istanbul (Photo: Arnaud Andrieu / Sipa Press / Profimedia Images)

After initial results were annulled, Imamoglu comfortably won the mayoral runoff, ending the 25-year rule of the AKP and its Islamist predecessor in Turkey’s largest city. Erdogan, for his part, was the mayor of Istanbul, a position that brought him to the forefront of Turkish politics, first as prime minister and then as an increasingly authoritarian president.

Experts say the outcome of next year’s election depends on the ability of the CHP and other opposition parties to rally around a single candidate to challenge Erdogan and his AKP party, which has ruled Turkey for two decades.

The appeal and final settlement of Imamoglu’s case may continue after the elections scheduled for June 2023.