CHP Leader Özel Accuses Erdoğan Government of Systematic Judicial Persecution of Opposition

CHP leader Özgür Özel told the BirGün daily on May 14, 2026, that the Erdoğan government is using prosecutors and pro-government figures to pressure jailed CHP officials into making false statements against party leadership under Turkey's 'effective remorse' statute (etkin pişmanlık). Özel alleged that prosecutors attempted to extract accusations against the late Manisa Mayor Ferdi Zeyrek and subsequently targeted senior CHP lawmaker Veli Ağbaba — one of Özel's closest allies. The remarks followed the May 8 opening of a criminal investigation against Özel himself over television statements he made about Justice Minister Akın Gürlek, which prosecutors allege constituted 'publicly disseminating misleading information.' Özel framed the accelerating judicial campaign as a coordinated effort to destabilize the CHP, silence internal dissent, and preemptively neutralize the opposition coalition ahead of the 2028 presidential election in which jailed Mayor İmamoğlu remains the CHP's designated candidate.