Istanbul's mayor jailed before party vote on his candidacy for president

An Istanbul court has formally arrested the city's mayor, Ekrem Imamoglu, on corruption charges, sending him to pre-trial detention before he was expected to receive his party's nomination to run for president.

- Ruth Michaelson

The mayor of Turkey's largest city and a rival of the president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, was jailed on charges of leading a criminal organisation, bribery, misconduct and corruption, along with dozens of his staff and municipal officials.

Imamoglu and at least four others also faced a separate set of charges accusing him of "aiding an armed terrorist group," for cooperating with a leftwing political coalition before local elections last year.

Prosecutors ruled that Imamoglu's detention on corruption charges alone was sufficient, despite "a strong suspicion of a crime", opting to detain three others on terrorism charges but not the mayor.

This decision is expected to allow the Republican People's party (CHP), Turkey's largest opposition party, to select a candidate to control the Istanbul municipality, rather than the state selecting a caretaker.

The Turkish interior ministry issued a directive to officially remove Imamoglu from office along with two Istanbul district mayors, appointing a trustee to replace one in a neighbourhood long seen as a bedrock of opposition support.