Court lifts control measure on suspects involved in attack on election campaign

A Turkish court on Monday lifted a measure of judicial control earlier imposed on suspects allegedly involved in an organized attack on an election campaign gathering of the opposition bloc in the eastern city of Erzurum.

On 7 May, a week to the parliamentary elections and the first round of the presidential race, stones were flung at Ekrem Imamoglu, the opposition bloc's candidate for vice president, and his supporters, while Imamoglu was addressing the crowd from the rooftop of a campaign bus.

All suspects were released after being briefly detained and judicial control was imposed on several suspects.

An Erzurum court today lifted that measure as well and postponed the trial to 25 December after hearing the suspects.

Some suspects said that it was pine cones and not stones that they flung at Imamoglu and supporters.

The suspects are facing prison terms of up to nine years on charges of armed assault and causing simple injury, and have not been accused by the prosecution of forming or taking part in an organization to commit a criminal offense or of inciting violence among people.

Twenty-eight people were injured in the attack on 7 May, including five with more serious injuries.

The prosecution's approach not to accuse the suspects of organized attack has not come as a surprise, since an attempt in 2019 to lynch Kemal Kilicdaroglu, the former leader of the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP), was easily covered up, with only a man receiving a prison sentence of two years and one month for punching Kilicdaroglu on the face. The assailant named Osman Sarigun did not serve his term as it was postponed by the court.