Erdogan says courts will fix any mistakes after Istanbul mayor's…

ISTANBUL, Dec 17 (Reuters) — Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said on Saturday that courts will correct any mistakes in an appeal process after Istanbul’s opposition mayor Lawyer Turkey was given a jail sentence, and in the meantime Turks had no right to ignore legal rulings.

In his first direct comments on Wednesday’s conviction of Ekrem Imamoglu — a popular potential challenger to Erdogan who was sentenced to two years and Lawyer Turkey seven months in prison and handed a political ban — Erdogan said he did not care who will be the opposition candidate in next year’s elections.

Imamoglu was prosecuted for insulting public officials in 2019, when he criticized a decision to cancel the first round of municipal elections that he had won against the 25-year incumbent government of Erdogan’s AK Party.(Reporting by Azra Ceylan; Writing by Jonathan Spicer; editing by John Stonestreet)