ISTANBUL (AP) — Prosecutors in Turkey requested up to three years' imprisonment for 74 people detained for taking part in the country's largest protests in more than a decade, pro-government media reported Friday.
In the first indictment against alleged protesters, the Istanbul Chief Prosecutor's Office asked a court for jail terms between six months and three years, the Haberturk TV channel said. The defendants, who are aged 20 to 40 and mostly university students, are accused of participating in illegal demonstrations and failing to disperse following police warnings.
Click to Gallery
A woman is detained by police in Istanbul, Turkey, Thursday, March 27, 2025, during a protest called by university students after Istanbul's Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu was arrested and sent to prison. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)
People shout slogans during a protest called by university students in Istanbul, Turkey, Thursday, March 27, 2025, after Istanbul's Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu was arrested and sent to prison. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)
University students shout slogans in Istanbul, Turkey, Thursday, March 27, 2025, during a protest called by university students after Istanbul's Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu was arrested and sent to prison. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)
A man is detained by police during a protest called by university students in Istanbul, Turkey, Thursday, March 27, 2025, after Istanbul's Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu was arrested and sent to prison. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)
University students march past a photograph of Turkey's founder Mustafa Kemal Ataturk in Istanbul, Turkey, Thursday, March 27, 2025, during a protest after Istanbul's Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu was arrested and sent to prison. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)
Seven of those in the indictment are journalists who were detained at home this week.
When hundreds of thousands took to the streets last week following the arrest of Istanbul’s opposition Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, bans on protests and marches were implemented in Istanbul, Ankara and Izmir.
The indictment also calls for political bans that would prevent those convicted from voting or standing for public office. The cases are due before court in mid-April.
Imamoglu, a key rival to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, was jailed pending trial on corruption charges that many see as politically motivated. The government insists the judiciary is independent and free of political interference.
Also on Friday, two journalists were detained in dawn raids in Istanbul, their outlets Etkin News Agency and the Evrensel news website reported. They were the latest to be arrested in early morning sweeps that have targeted political activists, trade unionists and journalists.
Reporters Without Borders condemned the journalists’ arrests. “There is no end to the detentions of journalists,” its Turkey representative Erol Onderoglu said. The Turkish Journalists' Union called for the news media to be allowed to do its work and an “end to these unlawful detentions.”
Turkey’s broadcasting authority issued a 10-day airwave ban on Sozcu TV on Thursday, as well as fines and program suspensions to other opposition channels.
A Swedish newspaper said Friday that one of its journalists was detained while entering Turkey to cover the protests. Dagens ETC, citing the Swedish Foreign Ministry, said Joakim Medin had been sent to Maltepe prison in Istanbul.
Medin was arrested when he landed in Istanbul around noon on Thursday, the paper said, adding that he was wanted in Turkey for unknown reasons. According to Medin’s website, he has traveled to northern Syria and wrote a book about Kurdish militants there who Ankara considers terrorists. He has also written a book on authoritarianism under Erdogan.
Courthouses across Turkey are dealing with a spike in cases as a result of the protests. Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said Thursday that nearly 1,900 people had been arrested since March 19.
Anxious families have been gathering outside court buildings to await the fate of their loved ones, who police can hold for four days.
“The youth we call Generation Z are more likely to participate in these protests. They sense that something is wrong," Savas Ozbek, whose daughter was detained Sunday, told ANKA News Agency outside Ankara Courthouse late Thursday.
Zeynep Ulger, who was waiting for news of her friend, said they were protesting for a “free, democratic country,” adding: “The only thing we have achieved in the face of this is being beaten by the police on the streets and being detained.”
Istanbul-based lawyer Arif Anil Ozturk, who represents many detained protesters, gave his insight into court proceedings.
“It is an unlawful process from beginning to end,” he told the Cumhuriyet newspaper. “There is no evidence, no footage. Children … are being treated like terrorists.”
Nightly Istanbul rallies organized by Imamoglu’s Republican People’s Party, or CHP, ended Tuesday. In other cities, and in Istanbul since the end of the CHP gatherings, largely peaceful protests have been more organic.
Police, however, have used tear gas, water cannon and plastic pellets to suppress demonstrations that have been banned in Istanbul, Ankara and Izmir.
At the Middle East Technical University campus on the outskirts of the capital Ankara, nine students were detained early Friday, opposition politicians who visited the site said.
Aylin Yaman, a CHP member of parliament, said students were sitting on the grass and singing when police stormed the area at 2 am. “We object to the police entering here as if it were a dawn operation and creating an atmosphere of fear,” she said.
The Istanbul Bar Association announced that three lawyers were among some 100 people arrested at a Thursday demonstration in the city’s Sisli district. Lawyers also said they had been kept waiting for hours outside police headquarters to gain access to detainees.
Imamoglu’s lawyer Mehmet Pehlivan was detained Friday, accused of money laundering. He was conditionally released later.
Turkey’s Nobel-winning author Orhan Pamuk, writing in several European newspapers, said events over the past 10 days represented “Erdogan’s strong-fisted, autocratic rule (at) a level we have not seen before.”
Following a meeting with Turkey’s foreign minister earlier in the week, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio described events in Turkey as “disturbing.” Speaking on a return flight from Suriname late Thursday, he said: “We are concerned, we don’t like to see the direction that’s going... Anytime you have instability on the ground you don’t like to see it.”
A group of European politicians arrived in Istanbul to show support for Imamoglu and meet opposition figures, led by former Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Lofven. “This is not just about one person. This is about democracy, and we are here to stand up for democratic values,” he said.
In a TV interview Friday, the co-leader of the pro-Kurdish DEM Party appeared to offer qualified support for the protests. “We are not the CHP’s activist group. We support them but we will not take to the streets for this,” Tuncer Bakirhan said.
Imamoglu faces charges stemming from two investigations into corruption and terrorism. He was confirmed this week as the CHP’s presidential candidate in an election currently scheduled for 2028, but which is likely to take place earlier.
Associated Press writers Matthew Lee in Miami and Geir Moulson in Berlin contributed to this report.
A woman is detained by police in Istanbul, Turkey, Thursday, March 27, 2025, during a protest called by university students after Istanbul's Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu was arrested and sent to prison. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)
People shout slogans during a protest called by university students in Istanbul, Turkey, Thursday, March 27, 2025, after Istanbul's Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu was arrested and sent to prison. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)
University students shout slogans in Istanbul, Turkey, Thursday, March 27, 2025, during a protest called by university students after Istanbul's Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu was arrested and sent to prison. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)
A man is detained by police during a protest called by university students in Istanbul, Turkey, Thursday, March 27, 2025, after Istanbul's Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu was arrested and sent to prison. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)
University students march past a photograph of Turkey's founder Mustafa Kemal Ataturk in Istanbul, Turkey, Thursday, March 27, 2025, during a protest after Istanbul's Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu was arrested and sent to prison. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)
PARIS (AP) — Far-right leader Marine Le Pen said Monday that a ruling barring her from seeking public office is ‘political’ and aims to prevent her from running for president in 2027.
A French court on Monday convicted her earlier Monday of embezzlement and barred her from seeking public office for five years — a hammer blow to the far-right leader’s presidential hopes and an earthquake for French politics.
Le Pen said she would appeal the verdict. Speaking to French TV channel TF1 in her first reaction to the verdict, Le Pen said that millions of French people “are outraged,” adding that the ruling was a violation of the rule of law.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.
PARIS (AP) — A French court on Monday convicted Marine Le Pen of embezzlement and barred her from seeking public office for five years — a hammer blow to the far-right leader’s presidential hopes and an earthquake for French politics.
Le Pen's lawyer said she would appeal the verdict, but she will remain ineligible while she does and so could be ruled out of the 2027 presidential race. She was also sentenced to four years' imprisonment, with two to be served under house arrest and two suspended.
The court ruling was a political as well as a judicial temblor for France, hobbling one of the leading contenders to succeed President Emmanuel Macron at the end of his second and final term. So broad were the political implications that even some of Le Pen's opponents said the Paris court had gone too far.
But it’s too early to say how the case will affect voters. The potential elimination of Le Pen could fire up diehard supporters, just as U.S. President’s Donald Trump’s legal problems motivated some of his. But it could also leave her on the sidelines, deflating what had been her upward trajectory.
Le Pen herself was not around to hear the chief judge pronounce the sentence that threw her career into a tailspin. By then, she had already strode out of the courtroom after the judge first indicated that the 56-year-old would be barred from office, without saying straight away for how long.
Although Le Pen did not immediately comment, her supporters quickly expressed disapproval. Jordan Bardella, her 29-year-old protégé who could replace her on the ballot in 2027 if she cannot run, said on X that Le Pen was “being unjustly condemned” and that French democracy was “being executed.”
Hungary’s populist prime minister, Viktor Orbán, quickly took to social media to express his support, posting “Je suis Marine!” — I am Marine — on X.
Among political opponents of Le Pen who expressed unease was conservative lawmaker Laurent Wauquiez, who said the verdict put “a very heavy weight on our democracy.”
The sentence could prevent Le Pen from making what would have been her fourth run for the presidency in 2027, a scenario she has previously described as a “political death.” The party’s most recognized figurehead and a formidable campaigner, Le Pen was runner-up to Macron in the 2017 and 2022 presidential elections, and her party’s electoral support has grown in recent years.
Only an appellate ruling that overturns the ban on public office could restore her hopes of running. But with the election just two years away, time is running out. There’s no guarantee that an appeals court would rule more favorably, and appeals in France can take several years to conclude.
The verdict was a resounding defeat for Le Pen's National Rally party, formerly the National Front.
She and 24 other party officials were accused of having used money intended for European Union parliamentary aides to instead pay staff who worked for the party between 2004 and 2016, violating the 27-nation bloc’s regulations.
The judge handed down guilty verdicts to eight other current or former members of her party who, like Le Pen, previously served as European Parliament lawmakers. Also convicted were 12 people who served as parliamentary aides and three others. Only one defendant was acquitted. All had denied wrongdoing.
The chief judge said Le Pen had been at the heart of “a system” that her party used to siphon off EU parliament funds, though she said they didn't enrich themselves personally. The ruling described the embezzlement as “a democratic bypass" that deceived the parliament and voters.
From the front row of the court, Le Pen showed no immediate reaction when the judge first declared her guilty. But she grew more agitated as the verdict was delivered in greater detail. She shook her head in disagreement as the judge said Le Pen’s party illegally used European funds for its own benefit.
“Incredible,” she whispered at one point. She then left without warning, picking up her bag and striding out, her heels clicking on the hardwood floor. The abrupt departure left many in the courtroom in disbelief as they turned their heads toward the door.
Rodolphe Bosselut, Le Pen's lawyer, said he was “appalled” at the court’s decision, which he described as “extremely scandalous” and said it would be appealed.
The electoral ineligibility takes effect immediately, but the house arrest is suspended while she appeals.
During the nine-week trial that took place in late 2024, Le Pen argued that ineligibility “would have the effect of depriving me of being a presidential candidate" and disenfranchise her supporters.
“There are 11 million people who voted for the movement I represent. So tomorrow, potentially, millions and millions of French people would see themselves deprived of their candidate in the election,” she told the panel of three judges.
Le Pen also serves as a lawmaker in France's National Assembly, a role not affected by the ineligibility ruling that she can keep for now.
But if Macron dissolves parliament again, as he did last year, and calls early legislative elections, she would be barred from running.
Leicester reported from Le Pecq, France. Thomas Adamson in Paris and Justin Spike in Budapest contributed.
French far-right leader Marine Le Pen leaves the National Rally headquarters after a French court convicted Marine Le Pen of embezzlement and barred her from seeking public office for five years, Monday, March 31, 2025 in Paris. (AP Photo/Thomas Padilla)
French far-right leader Marine Le Pen leaves the National Rally headquarters after a French court convicted Marine Le Pen of embezzlement and barred her from seeking public office for five years, Monday, March 31, 2025 in Paris. (AP Photo/Thomas Padilla)
National Rally party member Louis Alio leaves the National Rally headquarters after a French court barred Marine Le Pen from seeking public office for five years, with immediate effect, for embezzlement, Monday, March 31, 2025 in Paris. (AP Photo/Thomas Padilla)
French far-right leader Marine Le Pen's lawyer Rodolphe Bosselut answers reporters outside the National Rally headquarters after a French court barred Marine Le Pen from seeking public office for five years, with immediate effect, for embezzlement, Monday, March 31, 2025 in Paris. (AP Photo/Thomas Padilla)
FILE - French far-right leader Marine Le Pen answers to the media during a gathering in support of detained Franco-Algerian writer Boualem Sansal, in Paris, Tuesday, March 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus, File)
French far-right leader Marine Le Pen leaves the courtroom after a French court found Marine Le Pen guilty in an embezzlement case but didn't immediately say what her sentence might be and how it might impact the far-right leader's political future, Monday, March 31, 2025 in Paris. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)
French far-right leader Marine Le Pen leaves the courtroom after a French court found Marine Le Pen guilty on in an embezzlement case but didn't immediately say what her sentence might be and how it might impact the far-right leader's political future, Monday, March 31, 2025 in Paris. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)
French far-right leader Marine Le Pen arrives at a Paris court expected to deliver a verdict in an embezzlement case that could shake up French politics and derail far-right leader Marine Le Pen's career Monday, March 31, 2025 in Paris. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)
French far-right leader Marine Le Pen, left, arrives at a Paris court expected to deliver a verdict in an embezzlement case that could shake up French politics and derail far-right leader Marine Le Pen's career Monday, March 31, 2025 in Paris. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)
French far-right leader Marine Le Pen arrives at a Paris court expected to deliver a verdict in an embezzlement case that could shake up French politics and derail far-right leader Marine Le Pen's career Monday, March 31, 2025 in Paris. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)
FILE - This courtroom sketch by Valentin Pasquier shows French far-right leader Marine Le Pen during his trial, facing court on charges of embezzling EU funds at the Paris court house, in Paris France, Monday, Oct. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Valentin Pasquier, File)
French far-right leader Marine Le Pen arrives at a Paris court expected to deliver a verdict in an embezzlement case that could shake up French politics and derail far-right leader Marine Le Pen's career Monday, March 31, 2025 in Paris. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)
FILE - French far-right leader Marine Le Pen arrives at the courtroom for the trial over the suspected embezzlement of European Parliament funds, Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2024 in Paris. (AP Photo/Aurelien Morissard, File)
