Turkish prosecutors have ordered the detention of 27 people in a drug-related investigation, including the brother of Dilek İmamoğlu, the wife of jailed İstanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, the private DHA news agency reported.
The İstanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office issued detention warrants on Wednesday as part of an investigation into alleged drug use. Nineteen of the suspects have been taken into custody.
Among those detained was Ali Kaya, Dilek İmamoğlu’s brother. Prosecutors accused the suspects of possessing drugs for personal use and facilitating drug consumption, according to DHA.
Dilek İmamoğlu reacted on X, calling on the government to stop targeting her family.
“First my husband Ekrem İmamoğlu and his colleagues were targeted. Then our families,” she wrote, adding that using relatives as a means of pressure was illegitimate and that legal proceedings should be based only on concrete evidence, carried out fairly and transparently.
İmamoğlu, a prominent figure in Turkey’s main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) and its 2028 presidential candidate, has been in pretrial detention since March on charges that include corruption and “political espionage.”
His arrest, which came just hours after his formal nomination, sparked nationwide protests and has been widely condemned as politically motivated.
He is being held in Marmara Prison on the outskirts of İstanbul.
Another of Dilek İmamoğlu’s brothers, Cevat Kaya, was detained in April and later arrested as part of the same crackdown.
The investigation is part of a broader series of drug operations launched in İstanbul in recent months that have increasingly involved figures from the television, music and media sectors.
Earlier phases of the investigation saw dozens of suspects detained or arrested on similar charges, with some later released after providing statements and biological samples.