Turkey's embattled main opposition CHP, which faces a string of legal challenges, won some respite Friday when an Ankara court threw out a lawsuit that could have ousted its leadership.
The case, which centred on alleged vote buying at its 2023 leadership primary, is one of a growing number of prosecutions targeting the Republican People's Party (CHP) that critics say are politically motivated.
The lawsuit sought to overturn the result of the primary, which elected Ozgur Ozel and could have ousted him as party leader.
It was thrown out by the court because one of the complainants was ineligible to file the lawsuit, and the basis for the case had become moot since the CHP had held a fresh vote, re-electing its leadership.
The verdict triggered applause from spectators, among them a 75-year-old Ummu Gulsun Seyfi, a party stalwart since 1977, who accused the government of political meddling "instead of dealing with people's problems".
"But their ambitions have been thwarted today," he told AFP.
Onur Yusuf Uregen, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, admitted the result was a "surprise" but vowed to appeal.
Ever sensitive to political developments, Turkey's financial markets were boosted by the news, with the BIST100 stock exchange jumping 4.45 percentage points shortly after midday (0900 GMT).
- New charge against Imamoglu -
Although the full decision has not been released, Ali Yigit Koca, a CHP lawyer, told AFP the judge understood that subsequent party leadership elections meant there was no basis for the case.
"The fact that the CHP held an extraordinary congress in April must have convinced the judge to declare the procedure moot," he said. The CHP held another leadership congress in September.
Ozel, who was reelected at both meetings, hailed the decision.
"On one side, there is the government targeting democracy and seeking to eliminate the ballot box, on the other, the democrats who fight against it," he said at CHP's headquarters, his words echoed by party spokesman Deniz Yucel.
"At a time when the very notions of law and justice have been stripped of substance, this decision... is gratifying for our democracy," he wrote on X.
Critics denounced the case as another politically motivated bid to undermine Turkey's oldest political party, which won a huge victory over President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's AKP in the 2024 local elections and has been rising in the polls.
The biggest blow to the party was in March when Istanbul's powerful mayor, Ekrem Imamoglu -- the CHP's pick for the 2028 presidential race -- was jailed, sparking Turkey's worst street unrest since 2013.
On Friday, Istanbul's public prosecutor opened a new investigation into Imamoglu, accusing him of espionage, state news agency Anadolu said.
Also named was Necati Ozkan, his campaign manager for the local elections, who was arrested at the same time as Imamoglu and remains in jail, and the head of the pro-opposition Tele1 TV, who was arrested early Friday.
"Tele1 editor-in-chief Merdan Yanardag has been detained on charges of espionage in yet another dawn operation. They cannot call him a spy, nor can espionage come from true journalism! He must be released immediately," Turkey's journalists' union wrote on X.