A rival to Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has been formally arrested and charged with corruption.
Ekrem Imamoglu, the mayor of the Turkish city of Istanbul, is expected to be selected as the opposition Republican People’s Party’s (CHP) 2028 presidential candidate in a ballot on Sunday.
Imamoglu denies the allegations and in a statement on social media, he is quoted as saying: “I will never bow”.
His detention on Wednesday has sparked off some of the largest protests in more than a decade. Erdogan has condemned the demonstrations and accused the CHP of trying to “disturb the peace and polarise our people”.
On Saturday, tear gas hung in the air outside the mayor’s office in Istanbul, before the protests had even properly begun.
As the crowds had grown throughout the evening, it became hard to breathe as round after round was fired to disperse demonstrators.
Chanting “rights, law, justice”, people of all ages defied a government ban on gatherings to protest against what they see as an unlawful detention.
One young woman, dressed in black and wearing a face mask, told the BBC she was not protesting for political reasons or because she supported the opposition, but instead to defend democracy.
“I’m here for justice, I’m here for liberty. We’re free people and Turkish people cannot accept this. This is against our behaviour and culture.”
Another woman, who had brought her 11-year-old son to the protests, said she wanted to bring him as she is worried about his future.
“It’s getting harder to live in Turkey day by day, we can’t control our lives, we can’t choose who we want and there is no real justice here.”
It is very telling that no one the BBC spoke to felt comfortable giving their name or showing their face.
Many on the streets on Saturday night, braving arrest themselves, told the BBC they were out fighting for a future they could believe in.
In Ankara and Izmir, police deployed water cannons against protesters.
