A Turkish court on Saturday jailed pending trial İlksen Özalper, the opposition New Party’s provincial chair in Western Manisa province, on bribery and organized crime charges, marking the first such action against one of the party’s provincial leaders since it was founded in July.
Özalper was detained at her home in Manisa on August 5, after which police searched the property. After questioning in Manisa, she was taken to Ankara, where a magistrate approved a request for her pretrial detention on August 8.
The Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office is investigating Özalper on accusations of bribery and membership in a criminal organization formed for financial gain.
The file was opened by the İstanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office and transferred to Ankara on jurisdictional grounds. It draws on testimony given under Turkey’s “effective remorse” provisions by suspended Uşak mayor Özkan Yalım, reports from Turkey’s Financial Crimes Investigation Board (MASAK) and phone traffic records, the Sözcü daily reported. The “effective remorse” provisions allow a person accused of a crime to provide information in exchange for the prospect of a reduced sentence.
Manisa Metropolitan Municipality adviser Demirhan Gözaçan, his driver, Anıl Demir, and Cem Yüzer, general manager of a company owned by the Şehzadeler district municipality, were previously jailed pending trial in the same investigation. They face bribery and organized crime charges.
Özalper previously headed the Manisa branch of the then-main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP). Manisa is also the home province and parliamentary constituency of New Party leader Özel.
The CHP won 37.8 percent of the vote in Turkey’s March 2024 local elections, ahead of the 35.5 percent secured by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP). It was the first time in 22 years that the AKP had failed to finish first nationwide. The CHP retained İstanbul, Ankara and İzmir and captured municipalities governed by Erdoğan’s allies.
Prosecutors began a series of corruption and terrorism investigations into CHP municipalities later that year. Dozens of mayors, municipal officials and businesspeople have since been detained or jailed on accusations including bribery, bid-rigging, embezzlement, extortion and terrorism-related offenses.
The most prominent case concerns İstanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, Erdoğan’s main electoral rival. Jailed since March 2025, İmamoğlu is the central defendant in a corruption trial involving 407 people, most of them employees of the İstanbul Metropolitan Municipality. He denies the charges.
Separate litigation later reached the CHP leadership.
On May 21 an Ankara appeals court issued an interim order annulling the party congress held on November 4 and 5, 2023, removing Özel and the executive board and reinstating former chairman Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu. The court cited alleged vote-buying at the congress, where Özel had defeated Kılıçdaroğlu. Özel and his supporters rejected the ruling as judicial interference.
Human Rights Watch called the order an unusual interference in a party election and part of an effort to sideline the opposition. Justice Minister Akın Gürlek said the decision would strengthen public trust in democracy. Police used tear gas to enter CHP headquarters in Ankara on May 24 and removed members of Özel’s team.
After weeks of dispute, Özel and 90 other lawmakers resigned from the CHP on July 24 and established the New Party. Their departure gave the New Party 91 seats in Turkey’s 600-member parliament, making it the largest opposition group and the second-largest party after the AKP, which holds 277 seats. The CHP was reduced to 44 seats, while the Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party) has 56.
On August 5, the day Özalper was detained, prosecutors asked parliament to lift the immunity of Özel and New Party lawmaker Veli Ağbaba over allegations that they accepted bribes while serving in the CHP.
Opposition parties and rights groups argue that the criminal cases aim to keep President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s elected rivals from power.
