ISTANBUL (AP) — A Turkish court on Monday convicted five mayors of municipalities run by the country's main opposition party on corruption charges in a trial that critics have denounced as politically motivated.
The case before an Istanbul court included allegations of bribery, bid-rigging and fraud in relation to municipal contracts. Critics of the government of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan say the trial targeted the opposition Republican People’s Party, or CHP, and that the prosecution relied on secret witnesses and defendants implicating other defendants in return for lighter punishment.
The Turkish government insists the country's judiciary is independent and free from political influence.
The case focused on allegations that companies controlled by businessman Aziz Ihsan Aktas secured municipal tenders through bribery, bid-rigging and fraud. The opposition, meanwhile, has said that municipalities under Erdogan’s party control that did business with Aktas were not as thoroughly investigated.
Of the five convicted, the mayor of Istanbul's Besiktas district, Riza Akpolat, received the heftiest sentence of 23 years and three months for accepting bribes, money laundering and bid-rigging.
The sentences of the four other mayors — who like Akpolat were removed from their posts following their arrests — ranged between five and eight years.
The seven-month trial in a courthouse next to Silivri Prison, west of Istanbul, included 200 defendants. Some of them were also sentenced while others were acquitted, though details of their cases were not immediately clear.
Aktas was arrested in Istanbul in January last year, after which authorities launched investigations into other Istanbul districts controlled by the Republican People’s Party, or CHP. The southern Turkish municipalities of Adana and Adiyaman, both run by CHP, were also investigated.
Aktas initially denied the charges but later testified against co-defendants under Turkey’s “effective repentance” law, alleging he had provided mayors and other officials with cash, cars and other bribes to get municipal contracts.
Aktas was separately tried and sentenced to two years and eight months for bid-rigging but was acquitted of bribery charges.
Most of the defendants denied knowing Aktas and accused him of giving false evidence. They also said that tenders had been allocated under long-standing processes and previous audits had uncovered no irregularities.
Another controversial aspect of the trial was the use of secret witnesses by the prosecution, many of whom admitted their evidence was based on hearsay.
Akpolat, the mayor of Besiktas, told the court that investigators offered to drop the charges if he gave evidence in a separate investigation into the CHP’s 2023 congress.
That investigation led to a court ordering the removal of the CHP’s top echelon in May on the grounds of voting irregularities during leadership elections. Many CHP members followed deposed leader Ozgur Ozel to the New Party, which is now the largest opposition group in parliament.
The CHP won several major cities in the 2019 local elections, including Istanbul and Ankara, the country's capital. Further wins followed in the 2024 municipal polls but since then, an array of court cases have been brought against the opposition.
Ekrem Imamoglu, the metropolitan mayor of Istanbul and the opposition's favored challenger to Erdogan in the next presidential election, has been behind bars since March last year.
He faces several legal cases, with the main one alleging corruption within the Istanbul municipality — claims that echo those in the Aktas case. If convicted, he could be sentenced to more than 2,300 years in total.
File- A view of Sultan Ahmed Mosque, better known as the Blue Mosque, one of Istanbul's landmarks as seen from a boat in Bosporus, Turkey, May 25, 2015. (AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis, File)
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Military amputees and war veterans in Ukraine marked Independence Day on Monday by finishing a grueling endurance race that took them more than 1,500 kilometers (930 miles) around the country.
At a lake outside the capital, Kyiv, athletes removed their prosthetics and pulled on wetsuits to complete on the closing day of the weeklong event, with some needing help to get into the water.
Known as Iron Week, the competition is led by three-time Olympic triathlete Danylo Sapunov, who supports veterans as the country endures more than four years of war since Russia’s full-scale invasion.
“This is not a competition. There is no winner, and it does not matter who swims faster,” Sapunov said as athletes gathered at the lake. “The important thing is to participate and unite as one.”
Ukraine is marking the anniversary of its 1991 declaration of independence from the Soviet Union as European leaders traveled to Kyiv to join President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for official celebrations.
The amputee athletes completed seven consecutive days of competition — swimming, cycling and distance running — while traveling around Ukraine, including through war-torn cities in the east.
Yevhenii Lakhnenko, a 46-year-old army serviceman who had his right arm and left leg amputated after being wounded last October, said swimming had been central to his recovery.
“I am finishing my recovery and will get back in the ranks,” he said. “I do not think there is another country in the world as strong as Ukraine. Only our people are capable of doing what we are doing.”
Maksym Yuzviak, 35, a strike-drone operator who lost both legs in January 2025, said Ukraine’s independence rested on the actions of ordinary people.
“Independence is about the people,” he said. “People who are ready to take responsibility and who, as they say, are capable of taking action.”
Ukrainian war veteran Maksym Yuzviak, center, is greet by sports celebrity Danylo Sapunov during an athletic event to encourage people and injured soldiers to take part in sports at a lake on the outskirts of Kyiv, Monday, Aug. 24, 2026, during the 35th anniversary of Ukraine's Independence Day. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco) Corrects spelling of Maksym Yuzviak, not Maxim Yuzvyak
A man holds the prosthetic leg of a Ukrainian war veteran as Maksym Yuzviak, left, also a veteran, sits on a chair during a sporting event to encourage people and injured soldiers to take part in sports at a lake on the outskirts of Kyiv, Monday, Aug. 24, 2026, during the 35th anniversary of Ukraine's Independence Day. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco) Corrects spelling of Maksym Yuzviak, not Maxim Yuzvyak
Ukrainian war veteran Yevhenii Lakhnenko puts on his goggles during a sporting event to encourage people and injured soldiers to do sports in a lake at on the outskirts of Kyiv, Monday, Aug. 24, 2026, during the 35th anniversary of Ukraine's Independence Day. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco) Corrects spelling of first name to Yevhenii, not Evheny
Ukrainian war veteran Oleksii Kozak is helped to put on his goggles during a sporting event to encourage people and injured soldiers to take part in sports at a lake on the outskirts of Kyiv, Monday, Aug. 24, 2026, during the 35th anniversary of Ukraine's Independence Day. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)
Ukrainian war veteran Maxim Yuzvyak, left, is greet by sport celebrity Danylo Sapunov during a sporting event to encourage people and injured soldiers to take part in sports at a lake on the outskirts of Kyiv, Monday, Aug. 24, 2026, during the 35th anniversary of Ukraine's Independence Day. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)
A friend holds the prosthetic leg of a Ukrainian war veteran during a sporting event to encourage people and injured soldiers to take part in sports at a lake on the outskirts of Kyiv, Monday, Aug. 24, 2026, during the 35th anniversary of Ukraine's Independence Day. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)
A man holds the prosthetic leg of a Ukrainian war veteran as Maxim Yuzvyak, left, also a veteran, sits on a chair during a sporting event to encourage people and injured soldiers to take part in sports at a lake on the outskirts of Kyiv, Monday, Aug. 24, 2026, during the 35th anniversary of Ukraine's Independence Day. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)
Ukrainian war veteran Evheny Lakhnenko puts on his goggles during a sporting event to encourage people and injured soldiers to do sports in a lake at on the outskirts of Kyiv, Monday, Aug. 24, 2026, during the 35th anniversary of Ukraine's Independence Day. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)
