On Wednesday (June 4), a fifth wave of arrests hit the Istanbul municipality as part of an ongoing investigation targeting the opposition-controlled city following the March 19th arrest of mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu. Separately, an investigation was opened into Turkey’s main opposition leader Özgür Özel, who has been accused of threatening members of the judiciary.

Wednesday’s arrests follow a similar wave of arrests just last week.

22 individuals were arrested in yesterday’s wave, including three district mayors of the megacity and two from Turkey’s southern city of Adana.

Istanbul’s Büyükçekmece district mayor Hasan Akgül, Gaziosmanpaşa district mayor Hakan Bahçetepe, and Avcılar district mayor Utku Caner Çaykara were all detained Wednesday.

Adana’s Ceyhan district mayor Kadir Aydar ve Seyhan district mayor Oya Tekin were also among yesterday’s arrests.

The investigation targets those detained with various crimes, including ‘founding........

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