Uşak Mayor Özkan Yalım was arrested on Monday along with eight others in a bribery investigation, in the latest legal action targeting municipalities run by Turkey’s main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP).
Four other suspects were released under judicial supervision, according to Turkish media reports.
Yalım, the CHP mayor of the western city of Uşak, had been detained as part of a probe into alleged bribery, extortion and bid-rigging at the municipality. Prosecutors had sought his arrest on an additional accusation of forming a criminal organization, while other suspects were accused of membership in a criminal organization.
Among those arrested were Deputy Mayor Halil Arslan, municipal Finance Director Hüseyin Yaman, Chief of Staff Hasan Doğukan Kurnaz, driver Murat Altınkaya, municipal employees Cihan Aras and İsmail Özçelik, businessman Murat Baş and Yalım’s brother Mustafa Yalım, according to reports. Four others, including former municipal employee Aslıhan Aksoy, were put under judicial supervision measures rather than jailed pending trial.
The investigation concerns allegations of bribery, extortion and manipulation of public tenders at the Uşak Municipality. In his statement to prosecutors, Yalım denied the accusations, saying claims about duplicate invoices, improper spending and bribe demands did not reflect the truth and that there was no concrete evidence he had requested or received money.
The CHP moved quickly against Yalım after the case escalated. Party spokesman Zeynel Emre said the CHP leadership unanimously decided to suspend Yalım’s party membership, assign two lawyers to examine the case and begin a disciplinary process after hearing his defense.
The case comes amid an expanding legal campaign against the CHP following its gains in the March 2024 local elections, when the party won control of many major cities and dealt President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) one of its worst municipal defeats in years. Since October 2024, opposition mayors and municipal officials have faced a series of corruption and terrorism-related investigations that critics say are politically motivated.
The most prominent case is that of İstanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, a leading opposition figure and potential presidential challenger to Erdoğan, whose arrest last year deepened concern over pressure on elected opposition officials. CHP leader Özgür Özel has said the party is “under attack across the country” and has pointed to the growing number of jailed opposition mayors as evidence of a broader crackdown.