Erdogan's rival jailed for calling election council "fools"

 Ekrem İmamoğlu speaking to the media last month. Photograph: Ümit Bektaş/Reuters

A Turkish court has sentenced Istanbul’s mayor to more than two years in prison and banned him from politics in a move that his supporters described as a politically motivated effort to sideline a high-profile rival of the president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

Ekrem İmamoğlu was sentenced to two years, seven months and 15 days in prison for calling members of Turkey’s supreme election council “fools” in a press release three years ago.