Turkey moves to silence jailed Erdogan rival by blocking account on X

Some X users have replaced their profile pictures with images of the mayor, including Yusuf Can, analyst at the Middle East Programme of the Wilson Centre in Washington.

“Elon Musk has blocked the account of the hostage mayor and presidential candidate, upon Erdogan’s request – silencing the country’s most prominent opposition voice. We are all Imamoglu,” he said.

The mayor has been behind bars since March on corruption charges, which he has denied.

He is being held in Marmara high security prison in Silivri, on the outskirts of the city he was elected to run.

He has plenty of company – around 100 people were arrested with him – including city officials and members of his party. Dozens more have been arrested since, including his lawyers, and lawyers acting for those lawyers.

Human rights groups say the arrests are part of an accelerating attack on civil society in Turkey.

Imamoglu’s supporters say the charges against him are politically motivated, and that Turkey’s courts have been weaponised. The government has said the judiciary are independent.

In his most recent post, on Wednesday, Imamoglu called on supporters to join a protest rally in Istanbul that night.

It was one of the biggest in recent weeks with tens of thousands turning up.

His arrest in March sparked the largest anti-government protests in Turkey in over a decade.

The protests were largely peaceful but around 2,000 people were arrested in just a few days, many of them students.

The demonstrations are continuing in Istanbul, and around the country, but numbers have been smaller.