Turkish Court Upholds Prison Sentence for Opposition Leader

Ms. Kaftancioglu was first sentenced in September 2019, and she appealed. The court on Thursday rejected other charges including incitement and spreading propaganda for a terror group.

“We will never stop, never be disheartened, never grow tired,” Ms. Kaftancioglu said in a message posted on Twitter after the ruling.

Ms. Kaftancioglu, age 50, is a key figure in Turkish politics who is widely credited with helping the opposition wrest control of Istanbul’s city government from Mr. Erdogan’s party in an election in 2019, the ruling party’s most serious defeat in years. She was expected to play a leading role in the campaign of her party, Turkey’s second-largest, in presidential elections slated for June next year.

The court decision comes as Mr. Erdogan faces his toughest re-election fight in nearly two decades of ruling Turkey after his popularity collapsed last year as a result of an economic crisis. Turkey’s currency lost some 45% of its value in less than three months in 2021 after the Turkish president pressured the central bank to cut interest rates despite high inflation. In a survey released earlier in May by MetroPoll, 60% of respondents said they didn’t think Mr. Erdogan could solve the country’s economic problems.

The government’s “only card is to stick to polarization and oppression,” said Seren Selvin Korkmaz, the director of IstanPOLL, a think tank in Istanbul. “They want to take revenge for the Istanbul election,” she said, suggesting the charges against Ms. Kaftancioglu were politically motivated.

Turkish authorities recently sentenced to prison another prominent dissident in a move that could chill freedom of speech before the election, according to opposition officials and political analysts.

While Turkey’s judiciary is nominally independent, some judges and other officials support the government, analysts say. The government rejects accusations of interference in the judiciary.

“As soon as the verdict was published, they started blaming our president and our party. No one knows the content of the file. The legal experts should come out and speak their minds,” said

Omer Celik,

a spokesman for Mr. Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party.

Ms. Kaftancioglu could end up serving little or no prison time under a Turkish law that grants immediate release to those sentenced to less than five years in prison, legal analysts said. Her ban from political participation would hamper the opposition’s efforts to organize before the presidential election. The government could also choose to call an early election this year.

Thursday’s ruling sparked outrage among Turkey’s opposition, with CHP leader

Kemal Kilicdaroglu

calling on the party’s lawmakers to converge on its Istanbul headquarters.

“As an MP, I do not recognize this decision; I am ashamed of it in the name of law,” said Ali Mahir Basarir, a CHP lawmaker.

Last month, an Istanbul court handed a life sentence to

Osman Kavala,

a philanthropist who is one of the country’s most prominent dissidents. He has been jailed since 2017 in connection with public protests.

Write to Jared Malsin at [email protected]

Corrections & Amplifications
Canan Kaftancioglu was sentenced to four years and 11 months in prison on charges of “insulting the Turkish Republic,” “insulting the president,” and “defamation of a public official.” A previous version of this article incorrectly said she had been sentenced to 11 months. (Corrected on May 12)