{"id":139849,"date":"2026-08-03T18:06:07","date_gmt":"2026-08-03T18:06:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/139849\/"},"modified":"2026-08-03T18:06:07","modified_gmt":"2026-08-03T18:06:07","slug":"actor-turned-opposition-mayor-jailed-in-expanding-crackdown-on-chp-municipalities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/139849\/","title":{"rendered":"Actor-turned-opposition mayor jailed in expanding crackdown on CHP municipalities"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

A Turkish court has jailed Erdal Be\u015fik\u00e7io\u011flu, an award-winning actor who became mayor of Ankara\u2019s Etimesgut district, and 39 others pending trial in a corruption investigation, the state-run Anadolu news agency reported on Monday.<\/p>\n

Be\u015fik\u00e7io\u011flu, a member of the opposition Republican People\u2019s Party (CHP), was among 55 people\u00a0detained<\/a>\u00a0in raids across nine provinces on July 30.<\/p>\n

The Ankara West Chief Public Prosecutor\u2019s Office accuses the suspects of offenses including forming or belonging to a criminal organization, embezzlement, bribery, extortion by public officials, bid-rigging and misconduct in public contracts.<\/p>\n

Prosecutors sought the pretrial detention of Be\u015fik\u00e7io\u011flu and 43 others following questioning. The court jailed 40 and released the remaining four under judicial supervision. Ten other suspects had already been released under similar measures, while one was hospitalized.<\/p>\n

The investigation involves 42 municipal officials, including three deputy mayors, and 13 representatives of companies that did business with the municipality.<\/p>\n

The case concerns alleged irregularities and forged documents in municipal tenders as well as improper benefits connected to parking lot leases and zoning and construction permits. During last week\u2019s operation, police searched 56 homes and 15 workplaces and seized materials from 41 vehicles.<\/p>\n

Be\u015fik\u00e7io\u011flu denied wrongdoing, saying some of the irregularities cited in Court of Accounts reports had been uncovered by an internal audit he ordered. He said municipal tenders were outside his direct authority and denied having personal or commercial ties to the companies under investigation.<\/p>\n

He was also questioned over claims that municipal resources were used to film \u201cBehzat \u00c7.,\u201d the acclaimed television series in which he plays the title character. He said the production company paid the municipality and that the filming promoted Etimesgut without causing any financial loss.<\/p>\n

Be\u015fik\u00e7io\u011flu also denied issuing unlawful instructions or personally benefiting from any municipal transaction.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe allegations against me are abstract accusations and are not supported by material evidence,\u201d Anadolu quoted him as saying.<\/p>\n

The 56-year-old rose to national prominence playing a homicide detective who confronts corruption and political interference in \u201cBehzat \u00c7.\u201d He entered politics in 2024 and was elected mayor of Etimesgut, a district of about 600,000 people in western Ankara, the same year.<\/p>\n

The municipality was the subject of a separate embezzlement investigation in March, when four people were detained. Be\u015fik\u00e7io\u011flu said at the time that the inquiry had been launched in response to a criminal complaint filed by the municipality itself.<\/p>\n

His imprisonment is the latest in a wave of investigations into CHP-run municipalities since the party defeated President Recep Tayyip Erdo\u011fan\u2019s Justice and Development Party (AKP) in the nationwide popular vote in the March 2024 local elections.<\/p>\n

Police last week also\u00a0arrested<\/a>\u00a0\u00dcsk\u00fcdar Mayor Sinem Dedeta\u015f and three others over alleged bribery, extortion and irregularities in building permit and occupancy procedures.<\/p>\n

\u0130stanbul Mayor Ekrem \u0130mamo\u011flu, the most prominent opposition politician caught up in the cases, has been behind bars since March 2025. \u0130mamo\u011flu, widely viewed as Erdo\u011fan\u2019s strongest political rival, and the CHP say the investigations are part of a government effort to weaken the opposition and roll back its electoral gains.<\/p>\n

The government denies interfering in the cases and claims Turkey\u2019s judiciary operates independently.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Turkish court has jailed Erdal Be\u015fik\u00e7io\u011flu, an award-winning actor who became mayor of Ankara\u2019s Etimesgut district, and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":139850,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[83],"tags":[66686,12820,67206,2031,425,66687,66688,312,26350,429,430,131,132,155],"class_list":["post-139849","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-stockholm","tag-behzat-c","tag-bribery","tag-court-of-accounts","tag-crackdown-on-opposition","tag-democracy","tag-erdal-besikcioglu","tag-etimesgut-municipality","tag-human-rights","tag-opposition-run-municipalities","tag-oppression","tag-republican-peoples-party-chp","tag-stockholm","tag-sweden","tag-turkey"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@dk\/117032910144975530","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139849","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=139849"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139849\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/139850"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=139849"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=139849"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=139849"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}